One Purpose
by Siaanna
Summary: She didn't have the privilege of choice; bound by tradition and honor, she stepped into the unknown and fast city with only one goal in mind. But like a wise man once said "No plan has ever survived contact with the enemy. It is how you react to the unexpected that will determine if you will succeed". RaphXoc
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

* * *

**One Purpose**

Chapter 1

They were jumping and racing over rooftops, trying to get to their destination as soon as possible. The Kraang had been spotted again and they were going to get the shell beat out of them.

"I can't belief that they are at it again!" Donnie exclaimed, jumping to the next building and halting.

"Yeah," Mikey said throwing himself over the edge of an building and landing smoothly next to his taller brother "it's like they totally don't get it!"

Leo jumped and landed with a silent 'thump' between the two "Guys, remember that we have to stay silent!"

With a thundering smack, Raphael landed behind them and grinned broadly "I don't mind, we will just have to keep beating them until they get the message to stay down" and cracked his knuckles, the excited glint in his eyes giving his brothers a sliver of angst.

"That's not the point,-" Leo began before Mikey interrupted him.

"Wow, look at that!" he exclaimed pointing his finger to the street where the Kraang's white van and the Kraang themselves turned to point their guns to an approaching figure.

The turtles turned their attention to the road and then their jaws dropped almost audibly at the sight of the approaching girl.

Particularly Raphael was completely awestruck as he watched her move. The girl who was approaching the Kraang was walking in a relaxed pace in the middle of the street, the confidence with which she carried herself towards them made Raph's eyes grow to the size of tennis balls.

She was carrying a black straight hockey stick bag, the length of her own lean body and was swung casually over her right shoulder.

The girl wore knee length black poofy-pants, a black tank-top with a belt strapped around her waist just underneath her breasts and she was sporting a short cut light denim jacket.

But what made her even more awesome in his eyes, was the fact that even though it was well past midnight, she was wearing super streamlined black sunglasses.

Her midnight black hair was in a high-ponytail with thick strands of hair cupping the left side of her face.

The girl stopped walking when she was only a few feet away from the Kraang, furrowing her brows.

"You who has seen us in this place, will be destroyed in this place of which you have seen us in this place" said one of the Kraang and they all simultaneously raised their weapons and the purple bar loaded to fire.

The girl only raised a single eyebrow at the weird sound their weapons made.

She bowed to them, her left arm going behind her back as the corners of her lips twitched up in amusement.

"Uhm, guys…don't you think we should help her?" Donnie asked nervously as he watched with concern at the danger the girl was getting herself into and taking out his Bo-staff.

"Right" Leo said and they all drew their weapons. And as they were about to jump into action to save the girl, it was already over.

The boys stared at the destroyed Kraang bots lying on the ground and the fleeing Kraang-brains. Then their eyes moved to where the girl was standing now, on the opposite side of where she first had been.

She stood crouching slightly forward, with her left arm stretched all the way out and holding a strange looking knife.

It wasn't exactly a Tantõ, it was too broad and croaked looking for that. It was like someone had masterfully combined the small Japanese katana with a Military Knife.

It was apparent that she must have used the blade cut through the Kraang robot body's with one strike.

"Did…did she just do that?" Raph asked in complete disbelief.

The boys couldn't contemplate the pure speed and ease with which the girl must've taken out the Kraang…it was above that of any ordinary human.

Donnie began musing, dragging the attention of his brothers "That shouldn't be possible, especially with the looks of her blade it should,-"

"Guys," Mikey interrupted with slight panic in his voice, forcing his brothers to look at the back of his head "She is coming this way!"

The moment he warned them, was the moment she leaped up the building, using windowsills and a drainpipe to propel herself upward. She landed catlike on the edge of the roof right in front of the retreating Michelangelo, her brows furrowed slightly, confused.

The turtles – all but Mikey – stood ready for an attack. Though it appeared the girl herself had put away her strange looking blade.

"Hi," She greeted them with nonchalance, waving a hand.

The boys looked at each other for a moment before looking back at the girl who sat down on the edge of the building, gently setting the huge hockey bag next to her.

"You are not going to fight us too?" Leo asked, lowering his swords a bit.

"No." The girl smiled, a light Japanese accent in her voice - Donatello noticing that she might be older than they were.

"Well that's a first" Raphael managed to say in his regular tone. He was still in awe of her and fiercely hoped his brother wouldn't notice it. He could already hear the comments and remarks they would make if they did.

"So who are you anyway?" Leo asked "And where did you learn to fight like that?"

"Hmm? You managed to see that?" She laughed quietly and shook her head "I'm Mai," She answered, tilting her head forward in a slight bow as she sat "I was trained to be a samurai. So who and what are you?"

"A samurai?" Donnie questioned quietly and thoughtfully before Mikey jumped in front of him excitedly to interrupt his flow of thought.

"We are ninja turtles!" Mikey all but yelled, grinning broadly before getting whacked over the head by all of his brothers.

"Mikey! We are supposed to keep ourselves hidden from people!" Leo hissed.

Mai cocked an eyebrow "Ninja…turtles?" She questioned, the amused smile returning to her lips.

"Sorry, but we cannot answer your questions" Leo apologized in a rather throatily voice to imitate Captain Ryan.

"Ah…I heard New Yorkers were rude like that" Mai said sighing, getting up and grabbing her bag.

Leo frowned "That's not it, we,-"

"We are _not_ rude!" Mikey yelled to her and then turned to his brothers, whispering his words in haste "What are you dudes doing?! She could be our awesome new friend!"

Donnie scowled his younger brother, whispering just as fiercely "Mikey, remember the last time you _tried_ to befriend a human? He tried to kill us?!"

Leo and Raph came to stand closer, Leo agreeing with his tall sibling "That's right, who knows, she might be in with the Shredder, just like Dogpound"

"Don't you mean like _Karai_, Leo?" Raph commented snarkily.

A vein popped up on Leo's forehead before he continued with his reasoning "That's _exactly_ why we can't afford to make that mistake again"

Raph snorted "Just because your girlfriend turned out that way, doesn't mean she is too"

Donnie and Leo stared at their temperamental and often judgmental sibling in shock, while Mikey was quick to take advantage of whatever caused his two levelheaded elder brothers to fall silent "Exactly! And may I remind you she just took out the _Kraang_ for us? And instead of attacking us just came to say _'hi'_, can't we at least try and show a little friendliness?"

Leo let go of the weird display of defensiveness Raph was giving for the girl and filed it away to question it later.

He sighed "Fine," and turned around hearing Mikey squeal in excitement, only to find that the girl had gone.

"Hey, where'd she go?!" Mikey exclaimed running to the edge of the building to look around to find nothing. He turned to his brothers, a scowl on his face "Well nice going you guys! You all scared her off! Now she'll think we are just a bunch of weird rude ninja turtles!"

"Mikey, we just can't trust anyone who we randomly meet, they might work for the Shredder" Donnie tried reasoning with their little brother.

"But she defeated the Kraang! She was so cool!" Mikey whined.

"Anyhow, let's get back home, whether she does or doesn't work for the Shredder, we can't take the risk of staying here" Leo said, looking sideways towards Raphael who simply kept staring at the alley next to the building.

Though Mikey still complained, the turtles headed back home with extra caution.

* * *

"…and before we knew it, she was gone" Leo finished the story of what had happened with the Kraang and the girl to his father, Master Splinter.

They were in the living room, standing behind the couch. Donnie was on his homemade laptop, Mikey played on his T-phone and Raphael was busy pounding the shell out of his punching bag. Though the other three seemed to mind their own business, they were listening in well enough. This proved to be the case when both Raphael and Mikey spoke up.

"Yeah, because you and Donnie were rude to her!" Mikey exclaimed and frowned at his two elder brothers that almost looked like a scowl "Not cool, dudes"

"She might" _Punch!_ "have" _Punch. Punch._ "been a good ally" **_Kick!_**

"We can't be sure of it you guys, look at all that we have been through so far. We simply cannot trust a random person just for being friendly and coming over to say **_'hi'_**" Leonardo explained again, his voice sounding tired as he had to repeat himself yet again.

"Leonardo," Splinter said to get his attention. His brothers looked up to see what their master and father had to say about this "Though you have made a wise decision, this person was kind and polite to you, though you too, might have been her enemy"

"See!" Mikey jumped up from his seat and pointed to all of them "HA! I knew it!...wait what?"

Donnie frowned "So what you are saying is that we should've trusted her? And what we did was wrong?"

They all looked at Splinter again who closed his eyes and stroked his long thin beard in thought "Yes…and no." He let go of his beard and opened his eyes, his brows almost furrowing into a scowl as he spoke each word with emphasis to his sons "Though it is wise not to ever trust strangers in a time when you are already surrounded by enemies, but just like with compassion, you must not forget your _manners_. Especially as this stranger could easily have attacked you during your 'discussion' on the roof and did not"

"Hai, sensei!" Leo said bowing his head.

"Good," Splinter said and turned to return to his room "So the next time you meet this Mai…" He looked over his shoulder.

"We will be kind and polite as she had been to us" Leo answered.

As soon as Splinter left Leo turned to his hotheaded brother "So what has gotten you a change of heart?" Leo asked, crossing his arms and cocking a brow.

Repressing an embarrassing blush, Raphael punched his punching-bag with extra vigor "I," _Punch! __**Punch!**_ "haven't" _Kick! Punch!_ "I just thought," **_Kick!_**_ Kick! Punch! _"it might be cool," _Punch!_ "to have a Kraang Slicing" **_PUNCH! PUNCH!_** "Samurai warrior as an ally" **_Kick!_** He finished saying, stopping with hitting the dummy and looked at the skeptical looking Leo in the eye "Wouldn't you?"

Leo stared for a moment, his other two brothers busied themselves, feeling that the two of them might start fighting again and not wanting any part of it.

Raph stared back, not giving any indication he had any other reason for him defending the stranger.

"Whatever" Leo finally said, dropping his suspicions for now, seeing as he wasn't going to get anything from staring at Raphael in the eye for the coming hour.

Relieved his sibling let the subject go, Raph returned to training before going to his room to get some shut eye, only to end up to keep seeing the girl named Mai over and over again before falling asleep. Thinking how cool she was. If he had any poetic or romantic bone in him, he might have called her as smooth and graceful as water.

* * *

SEVERAL WEEKS LATER

They hadn't seen or heard of Mai ever since that night on the roof. In fact, they had completely forgotten her existence altogether. Every single one of them, except for Raphael.

He had thought many times of her, secretly hoping to see her again when they went out to patrol, investigate, fight, eat.

He would fantasize many times what he could say to her, how she would react. Often his fantasies would lead him to think they would end up sparring, tasting each other's steal, sharing techniques, becoming a team of utter bad-assness and coolness.

And then…maybe…

Raphael blushed. Hiding his face behind his comic book he had been reading before his thoughts led him to Mai again.

He suddenly understood all too clearly the awkward feelings his younger brother Donnie had for April and could sympathize with him a bit more.

A bit, since he still considerate his lanky brother to be an ultra-nerd who would never have a shot with April, while he on the other hand was cool, tough, brave, strong and confident. Therefore he would never screw up as badly as Donnie. He just couldn't.

The only problem here was, was the absence of the girl of his dreams.

Suddenly all their t-phones started to ring with a text.

"Did everyone else got a text from April saying there has been another mutant sighted on her site?" Donnie asked reading the text like everyone else.

"Yup" Everyone responded.

"And it has been chasing her and that she is now hiding and stuck in an alley in midtown?"

"Yup"

"LET'S GO!"

As his brothers moved smoothly, Raphael looked at his pet. Trying to communicate with his eyes to the silent being his hopeful thoughts and wished before he moved, running after his brother's. _'Maybe she will show up this time'_

* * *

As the four were sprinting to the vaguely described alley, Donnie's T-phone rang with April's ringtone, answering it hastily "April?! Where are you?! Are you okay?!"

His brother's followed extra closely, trying to hear the conversation.

[Donnie! I'm fine, some girl appeared and saved me!]

"A girl?" Donnie asked, disbelief colored his voice.

Raphael felt his heart do a little skip._ 'Could it be Mai?' _

[She scared the mutant off, but it managed to hit her with its shooting spines at us! She suddenly fell to the ground and is really hurt!]

"Then the spines might've been toxic! Be careful not to touch any of it!" Donnie said "Tell me where you are"

Though his younger brother seemed somewhat relieved that the danger for April had passed, Raphael was more than worried about the possibility of that girl being Mai and dying.

Once getting a proper location, they hurried, but not enough to Raph's taste. His brother's exchanged glances as their temperamental brother took the lead growling under his breath with irritation.

Arriving, they found April crouching next to the female samurai they had met weeks ago.

"That's…" Leo said landing next to Raph who was already hurrying to the girl laying on the ground.

"Mai," Raph said, finishing his elder brothers sentence and calling to the girl in one go.

Donatello and Michelangelo landed next to Leo.

Mikey's eyes went wide as he looked at the girl "Dude…"

All though they were confused by Raph's sudden change in attitude, they ignored it upon seeing the girl.

Other than sweating and groaning silently as she lay helpless on the dirty ground, she looked the same, except for the many needle like spines sticking all over her right arm.

"Donnie" Leo said his name with meaning and Raph backed up a few steps, feeling their worried eyes shifting from Mai to him and to Mai again.

Donatello rushed over to her, checking her signs "I was right, whatever that mutant was, it has a very powerful toxicant packed in those spines" Donnie pointed to more of the spines lying around on the ground "But I can't help her here," He looked over his shoulder to Leo.

Who sighed and said "Let's take her back with us then, Raph, you carry her"

Donatello grabbed a couple of the spines on the ground and put them safely away, turning to carry April.

Though he still found the process of it all too slow, Leo had done Raph unknowingly huge favor. Gently picking her up, Raph spoke quietly to her "Hang on, Mai,"

"M…" She tried speaking, her voice weak "M-my…ba..ag" He turned to see the black hockey stick bag lying on the ground near a couple of trashcans.

"Mikey, grab the bag" He ordered Mikey, who willingly grabbed it and groaned in surprise when it weighed heavier then he expected, but swung it over his shoulder anyway.

This time his brothers got the clue and hastily returned to the lair with April tagging along.

"Is she going to be okay?" Mikey asked quietly, hugging the giant black bag he took with them for Mai. The young turtle's blue eyes full of concern as Raphael laid her on the couch and Donatello already rushing to his lab.

"I'm going to do my best Mikey" He said and hurried to his lab.

"I'm going to help Donnie, you guys take care of her" April announced and disappeared after Donatello.

"Okay, Mikey, you get some blankets" Leo ordered his younger brother who immediately complied "Raph," Leo turned to see Raphael gently putting a cushion behind her head "I'm going to get some bandages and water, you stay here… and remove the spines from her arms"

Again, Leo had done Raph a huge favor, even if it was unbeknownst. As his brothers disappeared to their given tasks, he quickly grabbed a pan from the kitchen, filled it with water and returned to remove the spines.

As he kneeled down and began working on her arm, Mai's good arm and hand came to shakily touch his face "D…dõm..o," she uttered breathlessly, thanking him.

His heart did a flip-flop "No problem," He said almost just as quiet, grabbing her good hand gently and held it for a moment "just hang in there, Donnie's going to cure you any moment now"

Her lips twitched upward again, her head falling to the other side of the couch and her hand going limp in his.

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

**UPDATE:** Now if you are reading (or rereading the story because of me taking to long to post a new chapter - so, so, sorry) this, it means you are reading my first _rewritten_ version of the story (well, _rewritten_ is a big word, more like '**corrected**' version) One Purpose.

I am at a stage where I am going to TRY and correct all my mistakes and horrible grammar/spelling in the story, so bear with me for a little while...^^;

So I am busy cleaning the story, if you will, all the way to chapter 12 - after that, I will upload chapter 13 ;)

Anyway, as always, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter so far, let me know what you think and I hope you will also enjoy the rest.

Lots of love,

Siaanna


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!**

* * *

**One Purpose**

Chapter 2

"DONNIE!" Raphael shouted "You better hurry up!"

Donatello had been able to pinpoint the toxic and now hurriedly was making the antidote "I'm working as fast as I can!" He shouted back as he poured the last of the mixture into another glass tube with shaking hands and put it in the oven.

"Well work **_harder_**, or else she isn't going to make it!" Raph yelled.

Ignoring his elder brother shouting from the living-room, Donatello focused on the matter at hand "I can't belief she is alive to begin with…" He muttered looking at the results he found in the toxin.

"What do you mean?" April questioned, looking at him worriedly.

He turned to look at her as he explained "Well, whatever it is that attacked you, the toxins in the spines could have killed an elephant with only one - she should already be dead"

April felt a pang of guilt and looked to the ground. If only she was able to do more…

Seeing her the guilt on her face, Donnie quickly tried to cheer her up in a panic kind of manner "But she might have some immunity to it already, so that would explain that~! Hahaha!"

The timer on the oven dinged and he quickly put the antidote into the centrifuge – while Raphael shouting for them to hurry the shell up – and hastily ran to the living-room to find his brothers and master hovering over the pale looking girl.

April followed behind him as Donatello bend over to inject her with the antidote.

"Her breath is so shallow" April commented as she observed the girl. She could barely see Mai's chest move "I hope it's not too late…"

In order to tend to her wounded arm, they had to remove the denim jacket, and as they had done so, they discovered that in the jacket there were weights – they weren't too heavy for the material to ever rip, but it was heavier than any normal jacket would be…

And though many of the spines penetrated the flesh of her right arm, most were stopped by even more weights strapped around both her upper and lower arm.

Raphael had also removed the belt that was strapped around her waist to make breathing more easy for her, discovering a small compact little bag on her back and the knife.

Without all the material covering her and now lying in brought light, they all could clearly see her and all the scars she had.

They were really old, fainted with time and would barely be visible in the dark. But Raphael could see them now and wondered where they came from.

"She is strong, both in body and in spirit" Splinter said, answering April, but putting his hand on Raphael's shoulder who hadn't blinked until that moment. The teen looked over his shoulder, up to his father. He was still holding her left hand with which she touched his face.

"She will heal, but it will take time" Splinter reassured him.

"Hai, sensei" Raphael replied and looked back to her face.

After a moment of silence, the girl's slight color returned and sighed, finally breathing normally.

She was still wearing her sunglasses and Raphael wondered if it was okay for him to take them off so he could fully see her sleeping face, hoping she would look peaceful.

"April, do you want us to take you home?" Leo asked, now that the danger for the girl was over, they could concern themselves with their friend.

"Are you kidding?" April asked, almost shocked "She saved my life, I'm going to stay here so I can help her get better"

"But what about school?" Donnie asked.

"I can call in sick" She said with determination "it wouldn't be a first"

"Well, if that's what you want April" Leo said, shrugging and looking at his Master who simply nodded the permission.

"Hey guys, look at this!" Mikey suddenly exclaimed and they all turned to see him open the hockey stick bag, revealing a huge Katana in its glossy black sheath.

There was an audible 'wow' coming from all the teens as Michelangelo removed the bag surrounding the katana entirely.

"That thing is huge! How could someone fight with a thing like that?" Leonardo asked in wonder as he jumped to stand next to Michelangelo to admire the huge sword.

"Michelangelo, Leonardo, put that sword back immediately!" Splinter ordered, his voice stern.

"But sensei, we just,-" Leo began, but was cut off.

"A samurai's Katana is no toy, you do not simply take it and drool over it without the proper respect to its owner." Splinter said gravely to all of his students, a slight scowl dragging over his features.

"Huh, what?" Mikey blinked in confusion.

Splinter sighed deeply "In other words, you don't touch someone else's property without permission"

"oh" Mikey said, zipping the Katana back into the hockey stick bag.

"Yeah, besides," Raphael said darkly, standing up and fisting his hands, his anger boiling "Shouldn't we be looking for the monster who did this?" And he gestured to Mai "I say, let's find the creep and smash its face so hard it doesn't even know what hit him!"

"I can stay here and take care of her while you go," April offered.

The three other brothers looked at each other for a moment.

"Let's go then" Leo said, a confident smile on his face.

As they left, Raphael glanced over to the girl, silently promising that he would pound the creep to the next dimension for what he did to her.

He thought he did so unnoticed, but his father wasn't blind nor a fool. Seeing his second eldest son leave, he stroked his long thin beard thoughtfully.

Feeling how warm the girl's forehead was with the back of her hand, April refreshed the bowl of water, getting a cloth, she laid the wet material on the girl's forehead. Hoping it would help a little.

"Where do you think she came from, Master splinter?" April asked, interrupting the rat-man's thoughts.

He looked at her "It doesn't matter where she came from, April. The important thing is that where she is now"

"Huh?" April looked at him questioningly "What do you mean by that?"

Splinter sighed, putting his hands behind his back "What I mean to say is, that at this very moment, it doesn't matter who or what she is or where she came from, but that we should be thankful for her presence today, if not, it might have been you lying on this couch."

April frowned and then looked at the hairy rat face "So, what you are saying is, that we should consider us lucky that she is here?"

"Yes," Splinter replied and looked at the sleeping girl. Her color had now fully returned and her breathing was steadying out "And perhaps it is very lucky she found us as well…"

"Master Splinter…" April begun looking at her hands.

He turned his attention to April again, cocking a brow "Yes?"

"I don't know…" April sighed, her face contorted between angst and worry. She felt her guilt rising up "I was just thinking that, with all the scares she has…she must have fought for her life many times right?"

Splinter smiled somewhat gingerly "Your concern is not only of that of this girl, now is it April?" Splinter touched her shoulder lightly with his hand "If your concern is about how much you are willing to go in a fight, the choice is always yours. There is always a way to choose flight instead of fight, even if it seems hopeless" He straightened up again and gestured to the girl "The scares she bears are the choices she made to stay and fight -whether they were wise or not. Like the new scares she will have now for saving you, is a choice all of her own"

"I understand" April bowed her head slightly. Feeling a bit better now "Thank you, Master Splinter"

* * *

"So, do you like her or what?" Leonardo asked Raphael as they followed the traces of what Mikey had named 'Toxic-Stinger' through the filthy dark alleys.

"What?!" Raph snapped and tried repressing his blush, failing miserably "NO! of course not!"

"Looks like someone has a crush on samurai girl" Michelangelo teased, getting hit over the head by Raphael's fist who was breathing rapidly in anger.

"SHUT UP MIKEY!" He growled angrily "So what _if_ I like her?! Go ahead and make fun of it while I go find that thing that almost _killed_ her!" He all but shouted stomping off into the direction which indicated the mutant had gone.

Leo easily caught up with him "We are not going to make fun of you for liking her,"

"We're not?" Both Donnie and Mikey questioned in unison.

"No, we aren't," Leo scowled them and turned his attention back to his angry younger brother, laying his hand on his shoulder so they stopped walking "Just because you always act childish and annoying about these things, doesn't mean we would do the same…in fact, we are happy for you," He looked over his shoulder to the other two "Right guys?"

They nodded rapidly, smiling extravagantly.

Raphael was still skeptic of his brothers blind acceptance and promise of the 'non-teasing-treatment' "But why would you? I mean, I'm always giving you guys such a hard time"

"Nah," Donatello shrugged, stepping forward "we all know you are just a big softy on the inside, Raph"

Michelangelo happily scattered his attention elsewhere as his brothers indulged in conversation, suddenly noticing something lurking in the shadows.

Tapping Raphael on the shoulder "…guys…" He tried, but was ignored.

"I'm _NOT_ a softy!"

The creature appeared to have been crouching and grew taller in the shadows "Guys!"

"Yeah, yeah, we all know you are tough, Raph"

"GUYSSSSS!"

"What Mikey?!" The three asked with slight annoyance to their little brother.

Mikey stepped behind them to cower as he pointed behind his brothers backs "Look!" he squeaked "It's Toxic-Stinger!"

They turned to look behind them just as the creature roared at them.

* * *

They came home, beaten and battered. They were lucky that none of them got stung by one of the toxic spines shooting from the creatures tail. As Donatello had pointed out, Toxic-Stinger had apparently been some hedgehog who had fused with some thrown away blowfish.

It had chased them all over the place, beating them up in the process and almost badly injuring Michelangelo. The thing had been crazy fast.

"Guys!" April exclaimed, running toward them as they entered the lair "Are you all alright?!"

"We're fine, April" Leonardo mumbled painfully, wincing as he walked over to the couch and sat down.

"Fine?! We're FINE?!" Donnie shrieked in a mild form of hysteria "That thing almost killed us, Le-o! _How_ are we fine?!"

Raphael was supporting Mikey and brought him to sit on a beanbag who was muttering an 'ow, ow, owww' quietly.

"Calm down, Donnie," Leonardo replied in an overly tired voice "We made it home safe, that's what counts"

Donatello grumbled, but let it go.

"Yeah, but Toxic-Stinger is really dangerous, Leo. What if it hurts somebody?" Michelangelo questioned worriedly. He was naturally worried about the potential human friends he had yet to meet.

"We'll think of something tomorrow, Mikey. But right now we need some rest" Leo said and eyed Raph who had walked over to the girl on the opposite side of the couch and sat down in front of her. Raphael was naturally tougher than they were, even if his wounds would have been greater, it didn't affect him as much as it would them.

And yet he looked more battered then them at this moment.

Very gently, Raphael took her left hand in his, her hand so much smaller than his since she was human.

April who had been helping his brothers mend their wounds, came to do the same for Raphael. Her eyes looked worried as she observed the often sarcastic and hard looking turtle being so broken.

"She is going to be fine" April whispered gingerly, as she sat down next to him on the floor and opened the first-aid-kit "Here, lets clean up those wounds"

Accepting April's help to clean out and bandage the fairly deep gashes, Raphael continued to watch Mai sleep.

He was a little relieved to see her look better than she did before he left, but he was mad at himself for failing his promise, for failing his brothers.

Master splinter appeared a short while later, just as April finished tying the last bandage around his arm.

They told him what happened, his advice being the same as Leo's. Rest now, fight tomorrow.

After a few more moments discussing the problem and 'resting', they retired to their rooms to sleep – April sleeping in the guest room they had created for her when she first needed a place to stay – until only he and Leo were left.

"You okay, Raph?" Leo asked. He had been standing ready to leave to go to his own room, but stood nailed to floor as he worried about his younger sibling.

Raph sighed. "Yeah" He stood, knowing Leo wouldn't leave him alone until he gave any sign that he would return to his room too "what a day, though"

Leo walked over to his brother, laying a hand on Raph's shoulder. Raphael looked over his shoulder, seeing his elder brothers soft smile "We'll get him next time" Leo said quietly.

Finally, at that thought, the corners of Raph's mouth turned upward "Next time"

* * *

Morning came.

And so did utter soreness. All four awoke more broken then healed, though they were used to getting pummeled and pushed to the very limit, they might need a little bit more time before they could go after Toxic-Stinger that day.

So when they gathered in the living room to find the couch empty, they stared with wide eyes and open mouths at the girl doing one armed push-ups with her bandaged arm.

Sweat creased her brow as she was counting the times she went down to face the floor and up again, her right arm shaking with the effort it took while it was being brutally abused by its owner. The white of the bandages had turned crimson, a sign her wounds had opened up once more.

April appeared behind them, yawning a "Good morning…"

At the lack of response from the turtles, April looked passed them to see what they were staring at "What's going on?" She asked before she also witnessed the girl in the middle of the room.

April too fell silent.

None of them knew what to say as they watched her. Some of them thought of stopping her, to tell her she must rest. But how do you approach someone who looked so…so…focused and determined?

At the moment Leo suggested someone stopped her due to the blood trickling down her arm, the girl finished her push-ups and pushed herself up right, stretching her arms.

"Ohayō" Mai greeted them good morning. She turned her head in the direction of the turtles and the single human girl standing next to them "April was it?" She asked, her Japanese accent softly caressing each word she spoke.

April blinked, surprised "Y-yeah" She looked at her friends and back to the girl "Are you alright? Your arm…"

"It'll be fine" The girl turned her body fully to them and bowed "Thank you. All of you"

"No problem" Leo said, bowing back to mimic her formality.

"Yeah, thanks for saving April" Donatello thanked, bowing as well and dragging Mikey down with him into his bow.

April bowed too.

Raphael stood frozen.

He hadn't anticipated this.

He had thought she would still be lying down unconscious on the couch, where he could idle over her, preparing himself mentally and emotionally to talk to her.

Leo straightened up, followed by the others and smiled apologetically to her "And we are sorry for being so rude to you on the roof the other time, it's just that we have to be careful who we trust"

Mai raised her hand to stop any further apologies "I can relate to such a thing, the world is indeed a dangerous place" her lips softly twitching up in an understanding smile.

She sighed, letting her hand slip back to her side "Sadly, it seems it becomes more dangerous every day"

"Yeah tell me about it!" Mikey complained loudly "All those mutants, alien robots and the foot…oh! And don't forget the purples dragons!"

"Really? You're keeping the purples dragons as the worst of them?" Donnie questioned his little brothers sanity.

"The Foot?" Mai asked in a low tone, dragging their full attention back to her – even unfreezing Raph for the moment "What do you know about them?"

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

**UPDATE:** Now if you are reading (or rereading the story because of me taking too long to post a new chapter - _so, so_, sorry) this, it means you are reading my _rewritten_ version of the story (well, _rewritten_ is a big word, more like '**corrected**' version) One Purpose.

I am at a stage where I am going to TRY and correct all my mistakes and horrible grammar/spelling in the story, so bear with me for a little while...^^;

So I am busy _cleaning_ the story, if you will, all the way to chapter 12 - after that, I will upload chapter 13 ;)

Anyway, as always, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter so far, let me know what you think and I hope you will also enjoy the rest.

Lots of love,

Siaanna


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

* * *

**One Purpose**

Chapter 3

"That they are pure Evil!" Mikey exclaimed "Every time we think we beat them, they come back and,-!"

Michelangelo was stopped by Raphael putting him in an arm-lock and covering his mouth "Shut it Mikey" He muttered, scowling him. This wasn't the time to be spilling information, even if he believed – or hoped – Mai would be on their side.

"Why do you want to know about the Foot clan?" Asked Leo, finding it hard not to sound suspicious. For all he knew, she was still an enemy, and saving April had just been a trick…but still Mai almost died, would anyone go that far?

Mai contemplated telling them her reason, whether or not she could trust them. She had a feeling she could, but then came the matter of them still being kids. How could she burden them with her story?

"A good question indeed, Leonardo" Came the deep voice from Master Splinter, which made all their heads turn to the enormous rat-man standing on the platform behind the water.

"Master Splinter" The teens said surprised – one being muffled by a hand.

For a split second, Mai had been tense to fight, but relaxed as she realized it wasn't him.

Splinter nodded to his sons – Raphael quickly letting go of Michelangelo – and turning to the girl "But first, let's aid your wounds once more"

With that, the tense atmosphere had disappeared, Splinters presence making it easier for the teens to relax.

When everyone was settled in a seat and Mai's wounded right arm was treated with new bandages, Splinter asked the question while offering her some tea.

"Now then, perhaps you could answer our question as to why you have an interest in the Foot?" He asked politely, his sons and April waiting with anticipation.

Mai took a sip of her tea "It is a matter of Duty and Honor, Splinter-san. My reason for being here is to avenge my Master, who was killed by Oroku Saki"

"The Shredder" Michelangelo whispered.

"Yes," Mai nodded and then bend her head down in thought. She decided to only tell what they needed to know and leave all of the ugliness to herself "The _Shredder_ had taken the life of my Master two years ago and I have been tracking him since - but it is the first time he has ever shown himself so openly"

They all stayed eerily silent through the conversation, listening intently. Raphael felt something cringe when she spoke so indifferent about the subject. Shouldn't she be angry that her Master had been killed?

At least that was how he would react – he would totally loose it.

But she didn't seem to care in the slightest, like the subject about avenging her Master was of no importance to her and he felt that difference between them.

Master Splinter looked from her to his hands on his staff, his brows pulled together in thought "Yes, that is because he has only a single minded goal, that being the destruction of my family and myself"

"It seems we have a common enemy," Mai half sighed and then drinking the last of her tea. Putting the cup down gently, Mai stood up rather rigidly "But before I set out to avenge my Master, I must first defeat the creature who has almost made me fail my Duty"

"What?!" All of the turtles exclaimed, almost startling her.

"Are you crazy? That thing nearly killed you!" Raphael shouted, pushing himself of the wall he had been leaning on, stepping in front of her unconsciously and using his arms as he kept shouting in his hotheaded manner "It nearly killed us! And now you want to go after it?!"

While he was questioning her sanity, she was putting on her sandals and grabbing her little belt-bag and putting it on.

"Not to mention that you are still injured!" April commented, equally worried.

"Even more after the push-ups thing" Michelangelo added, using his arms to do 'air-push-ups' to demonstrate the activity he mentioned.

Before anyone else could say any more about the matter, Mai put her hand out to stop them. In it she held her smaller blade which was sheathed.

When they all closed their mouths she put it behind her back and attached it to its holder on the belt-bag while telling them off "This is _my_ fight to regain my Honor - even if it kills me. It is _the way_ of the Samurai. My Master would scowled me if I did otherwise"

They all looked at each other for a moment – particularly Raphael and Leonardo shared the most meaningful of looks – before Leonardo sighed "If that is what you want, at least wait until twilight so we can show you where we last saw it"

Mai turned her head in the direction of their Master, raising her brows in disbelief "Weren't they trained to be Ninja? Are they not able to lead me to the creature while hiding in the shadows?"

"Hey!" The three eldest of the turtles almost growled, completely offended.

It should have been taken as an insult to a Master of Ninjitsu, that someone questioned their training, but it wasn't. Splinter could understand why she did not understand that they couldn't go outside in the daylight.

"Yes they have, but…" Splinter said and contemplated his words "…we are not human. If they get spotted in daylight, it might end worse than you might imagine"

Mai's brow furrowed as she spoke softly, twisting her body way round to completely face Splinter "I already thought something was different" her lips suddenly twitching up in amusement "Okay, I'll wait. But tell me how"

"Guys, am I the only one who doesn't get what Master Splinter and Mai are talking about?" Michelangelo asked his brothers who looked equally confused.

"Yes," Master Splinter patted the spot next to him for her to sit down. Mai sat down and as soon as she did, Splinter began with the beginning of his story when he was still human. Of how he lost everything to the Shredder, how he turned into a rat moments after he bought his now sons, at a pet-store by what they now knew was a mutagen brought to this dimension by the Kraang and what had happened so far afterward with the Shredders return.

Normally, when the turtles heard the origin of their story, they didn't feel inclined to listen as carefully as they did now, especially Raphael.

They were very intend on Mai's reactions, who took all of it in very calmly, not interrupting Splinter even once with a question.

She just listened.

Raphael liked that, he didn't know exactly why, he just thought how nice it was if someone would just listen like that.

As soon as Splinter was done talking, the group of teens leaned in closer, waiting for her response.

"Okay," Mai frowned, summarizing what splinter had told her "so you were actually human, but was turned into a giant rat by some alien robots with brains-things in them called the 'Kraang' through a mutagen which you called the 'ooze'…" Master Splinter nodded and Mai continued, this time her direction towards the turtles, pointing at them even "And these are your sons, who were technically just pet turtles, but also got mutated, who you trained to be ninja and fight the other mutants accidentally or purposefully created by the mutagen, saved the world more than once from the Kraang and they are no older then fifteen?"

Again, Master Splinter nodded.

"Wow, and I always thought I was the weird one" Mai said, showing them for the first time a full blown grin. Raphael needed to look away, he felt like his heart had just been squeezed.

"See!" Michelangelo shouted, jumping up in excitement "I knew humans would accept us!"

"Mikey, just because _one_ other human accepts us, doesn't mean the rest of the world would too" Donatello told sternly, making Mikey pout.

"So you don't find us weird? Or freaky?" Raphael asked with a big amount of skepticism, seriously doubting the blind acceptance – while he on the other hand had been especially nervous about how she would react to the discovery that they weren't wearing costumes "I mean, look at Mikey" He said, gesturing to his younger brother who gave him his typical offended 'hey!' shout.

Mai burst with laughter, startling them – except for their master of course.

With them all still having big white eyes from surprise, she quietly chuckled "You haven't noticed? That's so _not_ ninja like of you, boys"

They shared confused looks with each other.

"Notice what, exactly?" Leonardo questioned, surely he would know what she was talking about, right?

Mai lowered her head, pushing down her sunglasses some, revealing her scarred eyes that were all white "That I'm blind" She informed them, amusement still curling her lips upward in a tiny smile.

There was a long pause.

"_Dudddde_," Mikey exclaimed in amazement "that makes you even so much cooler – just like Mr. Murakami"

"But how do you manage to fight?" Donatello questioned, thinking of all the limitations and inconveniences came along with losing one's ability to see.

"I wasn't trained to fight with sight, I was trained to fight without it" Mai explained, interrupting Donnie's flow of thought "I was blinded at the very beginning of my training, so I was taught to 'sense' my enemy. It is why that even though I can't see you, I can still 'sense' your presence in the way you breath, the way you move…"

"That is very impressive, Mai" Leo began "Could you, if it isn't too much to ask, show us your Katana? How you use such a sword?"

Mai's soft little smile widened to a wolf like grin leaving Raphael with the impression she enjoyed a good fight just like him "I will, later, when we find the creature"

* * *

"Why don't you go talk to her?" Leo asked when they were leading the way to where they last saw Toxic-Stinger. They were jumping over rooftops, the cool night air blowing against their skin and the city making its usual nightly noise.

Raphael looked over his shoulder cautiously, seeing Mai jump and run after them. To him her rough and bold moves to avoid hitting or falling down the buildings were unbelievably graceful. Especially with that huge katana hidden in the hockey bag swung so casually over her shoulder.

Raphael looked back to watch his large feet work the buildings, embarrassment making it hard for him to speak "I…can't"

"Why not?" Leo questioned, cocking a brow in disbelief "This is so not like you, Raph. You never hesitate with anything"

"Well," Raph bit out, sneaking another glance over his shoulder, seeing her land on a roof top and sliding down to jump again in that rough and bold manner. Raphael looked back again "I just _can't_" He snapped angrily, jumping further ahead, taking the lead.

Leo exchanged looks with Donatello and Michelangelo, who simply shrugged and decided he should to let it go.

It might be better any way to let Raphael figure this one out on his own – it wasn't like he, or any of them for that matter, were experts with relationships to begin with. Leonardo in particular considering the horrible record he held with Karai.

Raphael was deep in thought about his problem – he hadn't thought he would ever feel this embarrassed about…well, _talking_ to a girl.

She had spent the entire day in the dojo, meditating, where he watched her from a distance. All he could do was thinking about things to say, but coming up blank - everything he came up with seemed either overly exaggerated, mundane or downright stupid.

The pressure to impress her was so heavy, that it simply swatted whatever coherent thought he had when he saw her sitting there.

Was this how Donatello felt all the time when talking to April? He suddenly felt incredibly sorry and guilty thinking of all the times he teased his dorky brother. If he knew having a crush on someone would be this,-

"Hey"

Raphael almost hit the side of a building if she hadn't grabbed his hand and dragged him back up with her onto the next building. They continued running, Raphael barely keeping his pace as he blushed in embarrassment.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you like that" Mai apologized, again the tiny smile on her lips.

"N-no problem" Raphael choked - cursing himself on the inside for his lameness at the moment while simultaneously trying to calm himself enough so he could act like he wanted to "Uhm…wassup?"

Mai who was blind seemed to lay her attention up ahead "I wanted to thank you"

Raphael found himself more confident "What for?" He asked, sounding surprised.

"For staying with me" She replied.

Raphael might have fallen from a building again if Leonardo didn't notify them "We're here" He said and all of the teens stopped.

The alley down below was dark, its shadows creeping up the building and cloaking it with silence. Chills ran down the teens their spines.

"If you still wish for me to show you how I handle my katana," Mai quietly spoke as she undid the hockey bag from around her katana "You might want to keep this distance while watching, if not," She unsheathed the huge sword and stood on the edge "Sayonara" and jumped down.

"Wait!" Leo tried, reaching out "You shouldn't do this alone!" He called after her, but there was no answer in return.

"Wow," Michelangelo soft exclaimed "she is _soooo_ cool"

"What should we do now Leo?" Donatello questioned nervously, looking down concerned and gulping "We aren't healed enough to face that thing"

"Neither is she" Raphael snapped, angry that his brothers hesitated at the moment. He fiercely grabbed his Sai's - he might not be able to talk to her, but he was more than able to fight. "So I'm going, whether you guys are coming or not!" He growled, walking to the edge wanting to jump down.

Leo grabbed his shoulder "Wait, Raph!"

Shaking of the hand, Raphael looked over his shoulder, an angry impatient scowl set on his features "What?"

"Think about this, she is a Samurai" Leonardo reasoned hastily to keep his temperamental brother from doing something impulsively again "I'm not saying we shouldn't help her, but you saw how determined she was to fight for her Honor, us intervening will only bring shame on her"

Raphael growled. Leo was right and he knew it. He turned to face his leader "Then what are you suggesting?"

"We let her fight, the only choice we have is convincing her to let us help her – that way we won't shame her" Leonardo said with a stern underlying tone, following it with "but that doesn't mean we will let her die"

Letting out a heavy sigh, Raphael accepted this plan. They would get her out, that was the smart thing to do and the only thing they could do for her at the moment.

Feeling the change in him, his brothers collectively relaxed.

"Let's go" Leonardo said and they went down at the same moment they heard a monstrous roar.

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

**UPDATE:** Now if you are reading (or rereading the story because of me taking too long to post a new chapter - _so, so_, sorry) this, it means you are reading my _rewritten_ version of the story (well, _rewritten_ is a big word, more like '**corrected**' version) One Purpose.

I am at a stage where I am going to TRY and correct all my mistakes and horrible grammar/spelling in the story, so bear with me for a little while...^^;

So I am busy _cleaning_ the story, if you will, all the way to chapter 12 - after that, I will upload chapter 13 ;)

Anyway, as always, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter so far, let me know what you think and I hope you will also enjoy the rest.

Lots of love,

Siaanna


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do NOt own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

* * *

**One Purpose**

Chapter 4

She could sense it, hear it move and though she could not see it lurking in the darkness, she knew it was a creature that would do so. Which would be to her advantage.

Her blindness was the reason why she could never be a ninja, making her unable to pursue the shadows to cloak her from sight, at least at night.

So she stood firm and not in hiding, simply waiting for the creature to launch. If she were to fight this thing, it would only present a single problem - that it was nothing she had ever dealt with.

Mostly, when fighting people or animals, Mai could spare their lives, for she knew where and where not to slice them to pieces.

But this creature was not a regular animal, it was a deformed monster spawned from a world that was beyond her imagination. So her only option was to kill the creature.

Not that she felt any guilt or doubt with the idea of taking its life since Toxic-Stinger quite literally almost ended hers.

Mai waited, she could almost _feel _its paws move slowly on the dirty ground with precision and consideration, before ever so slightly putting its weight on them to move into a better crouching position. Its breath was shallow, low, as it concentrated on its prey.

Her free hand had slowly began to move and clasp around the leather handle of the knife on her back.

The alley was too narrow for her to actually use her katana, Mai would have to lure the beast into the park on the other side of the road.

With that goal in mind, her grip tightened and the creature finally launched out of hiding, planning on biting her head clean of her shoulders.

When his giant teeth minced only air as its jaws loudly slapped together, the creature suddenly felt tremendous pain shoot through the left side of its face and roared.

Mai backed away, feeling blood seep onto her hand from the blade, slightly grinning satisfied when she realized she must have hit its eye.

That should be enough to entice the creature to follow her out of the alley…

It was then she heard the silent, but hasty, footfall of large feet coming down the alley walls.

"Mai!" Raphael exclaimed when he saw Toxic-Stinger prepare for another attack. He and his brother moving fast to help her out.

Mai would have told them to back off if the creature hadn't pinned her to the ground. Mai groaned under the weight and managed to stab the hissing Toxic-Stinger unbeknownst in its chest, unable to pull it back out.

A fierce howl escaped the creature's throat and he tossed Mai away from under him, leaving the blade stuck in its chest.

The pain sent Toxic-Stinger into a frenzy, shooting its spines from its tail through the alley. The turtles managed to avoid them, distracting the creature from its main target. It was somewhat easier to fight it now, having lost at least half its sight and being hurt.

Raphael was quick to go stand protectively in front of Mai as she got to her feet "I thought" She breathed, her voice growing in fierceness "I made it clear this is a matter of _Honor_, that you should leave me to handle this _on my own_" Mai almost growled angrily.

Raphael might not have been an expert when it came to talking to girls he liked, but oh, he was an expert in having heated arguments.

His temper boiled thick and fierce as he got in her face with his feisty attitude "Now you listen,_ Mai!_" He growled, poking his finger into her collarbone "The heck with your honor! It's stupid to think you should die for stuff like that! What use does it have if it gets you killed?! I don't give two shells whether I have your permission or not to save your butt! You understand?!"

Mai didn't say a word.

She never actually had much contact with the outside world and the little she had so far was with old men and women set in a time period where tradition reigned and honor was bound. And so, hearing what another part of the outside world thought of her ideologies truly shocked her.

To have it viewed upon by a teenager trained to also follow his line of tradition and honor and then calling it _dumb_ and not respecting it, simply made her head twirl.

"Finally" Michelangelo sighed with relief while avoiding another round of spines being shot at them "Raph is acting like himself again"

"You noticed?" Donatello questioned incredulously, jumping over the creatures tail as it swung and hit the wall, a couple of bricks falling down to the ground.

"Well _yeah_, he hasn't yelled at any one for hours!" Michelangelo replied, swinging his nun-chucks at the creature.

"Guys, can you _please_ focus?" Leo demanded, annoyed while holding back a claw with both his katana's.

"I…I,-" Mai stuttered.

Raphael's tone softened somewhat and he laid his hand on her shoulder as he continued "So if it isn't too much to ask of your Honor, come help us out"

Mai didn't respond.

To _not_ follow tradition, to _not_ follow the way of the sword, it made her head hurt just thinking about it. Her honor was all she had left and once she fulfilled her last duty as a samurai, that would be _it_ for her.

There was a loud explosive sound, the creature howled and Raphael's brothers made a collective groan.

Raphael and Mai turned their attention towards the back of the alley, where the three turtles lay on the filthy ground, groaning and beaten. They had been still too wounded to actually take on the creature.

Toxic-Stinger stood on its hind legs ready to give them the final blow.

"Guys!" Raphael shouted and bolted forward to stop the creature. Raphael braced himself for the impact as he jumped in front of his brothers, not sure if he would survive it.

Mai was completely stunned by how weird that boy was. One moment he was shouting that honor was nothing and yet he stood there, protecting his brothers nobly, even if it cost him his own life in doing so.

Mai gritted her teeth angrily.

How would a mere boy ever understand that her Honor was everything she had and yet, jump in front of his brethren to sacrifice himself? She wouldn't be able to figure that out now.

That feeling of sacrifice awakened something deep down inside of Mai.

Even without her sight to aim, the creature was large enough and so was her katana, so she thrown with a strength that reopened the wounds in her right arm.

It hit Toxic-Stinger in the chest, right next to the sore wound, making the creature miss its target. The creature stumbled backwards as Mai propelled herself forward to grab her Katana and pulled it out again, more blood staining the already filthy ground.

They were still young – though it might only be a few years – they still had to learn how cruel the world was to those who were still innocent.

"Mai" Raphael breathed as she stood before him.

"Get your brothers out of the way" She demanded, her voice indicating that any further discussion was not an option.

Grumbling, he complied, using Michelangelo's Kusarigama to drag his brothers behind a garbage container while Mai stood ready to run and lure the creature with her to the park.

Recognizing her now for who she was and what she had done to him, the creature roared furiously, spinning around itself with incredible speed to fire off the spines on its tail.

Mai dodged, summersaulting backwards, reaching the end of the alley as the creature followed her with thundering steps.

Toxic-Stinger followed her over the road and into the park - people who were walking or in their cars driving by, simply stood still for a moment before they either screamed or yelled, running or driving away in utter fear.

Raphael was about to run after her when Leo grabbed his hand "Raph…wait" Leonardo muttered and groaned while getting to his feet "Where are you going?"

"I'm going after her! That **stupid** _samurai_ **nonsense** is going to get her killed!" Raphael bit out the words and growled angrily as the rest of his brothers got to their feet – if not somewhat unsteadily.

"Yeah, Toxic-Stinger is just too powerful for her alone" Michelangelo agreed weakly.

Donatello who was supporting Michelangelo's weight by holding his younger brother's arm over his shoulder looked at his eldest sibling with great concern "What should we do, Leo?"

Leonardo looked over his shoulder at the park, hearing trees and bushes quiver and shake as they were trampled over by the creature Mai was fighting on her own.

He considered his brothers, the girl, the city and weighed them while Raphael glared at him for taking his sweet time.

Sighing, Leonardo got his katana's off the ground "I don't see how we have a choice, Toxic-Stinger needs to be stopped regardless if Mai wants our help or not" He told his brothers and turned to grin at them "This is not just her fight"

"Finally" Raphael grinned, smashing his fist into his hand, cracking his knuckles.

Donatello and Michelangelo getting their own weapons and they were off to fight alongside the samurai, whether she approved or not.

* * *

The creature followed her, deeper and deeper into the park, until Mai had him where she wanted him.

She denied the pain in her arm to affect her speed, and landed swiftly on an open grass field. People who were walking their dogs soon scattered and ran a way in fear when Toxic-Stinger burst from the trees and bushes.

Skittering to a halt and skinning the grass from the ground, Toxic-Stingers began to drool like a wild dog with rabies as its mad eyes refocused on Mai.

"Finally" Mai murmured crouching slightly and placing her Katana behind her, her right hand clutching the handle tightly, preparing herself to finish this in one swift strike. She considered her right arm, she truly had only one chance to do this right, because a second strike wouldn't be possible after that.

The moment tensed, the creature felt the change and decided that he might as well try and eat her face again.

Crouching first, Toxic-Stinger launched itself from the ground, dirt flying from underneath its feet. Mai waited until she was sure the creature would be sliced in half by her blade and with a power that came from years and years of brutal training, she swung her sword over her head with lightning speed.

Her blow was sure to land on the creature, if it was not kicked aside by four mutant turtles jumping out of the bushes, one of them shouting an enthusiastic "Booyakasha!"

To prevent from slicing the turtles in half, Mai had to bend her arm - breaking it - so she would swing her sword the other way.

The girl held back a scream of pain and settled for a load groan escaping her lips as her hand let go of the handle, sending the sword flying. Mai momentarily lost her balance, falling to her knees. Her huge katana had swung round in the air and was now firmly standing upright in the ground as the turtles landed by her side.

Toxic-Stinger had fallen onto its side and slowly stood up while shaking its head, confused as to what had happened, making it even more furious.

"Mai, are you alright?" Raphael asked, looking over his shell to see her stand up slowly, holding her croaked looking right arm with her left hand. The blood literally drained from his face when he realized their mistake.

"You got in the way" Mai's low silent tones send chills down their shells.

"Mai, I'm sorry, we didn't mean to,-" Raphael began hastily, but was pushed aside by the samurai, who grabbed her katana with her left hand and angrily pulled it from the dirt.

"You want to help?" Mai quiestoned, turning her head as if to look over her shoulder and actually lowering her sunglasses to freak the teens out as her ghostly stare looked where they stood. Michelangelo gulped.

"THEN STAY OUTTA **_MY_**WAY!" She screamed furiously at the same time the creature roared, launching to them, making the ground tremble.

As Toxic-Stinger jumped to trample them beneath its large body, the turtles jumped out of the way. Mai turned, her body twisting fast into position. Now that she was more familiar with the size of the creature then she was before, she put her leg out and kicked the creature in the chest, coincidently hitting the blade that was still stuck there and pushing it deeper into its body.

The creature shrieked and backed away, growling fiercely.

Even if she wasn't as skilled with her left hand to fight with her katana, it had to do. Mai dragged her sword across the ground to intimidate the creature, to make it aware of its coming demise.

"Wooow," Michelangelo muttered in awe "Remind me never to get on Mai's bad side guys"

"Mikey, I'm not so sure we aren't already on her 'bad side'…" Donatello informed his younger brother worriedly.

"I think we better back up guys" Leonardo ordered, while Raphael simply stared, not hearing any of this. He felt like any chance he had with Mai, if there had been a chance at all, was just obliterated to a million little pieces.

"C'mon Raph!" Michelangelo groaned as he dragged him away to the bushes, trying snap his older brother out of his daze "We need to get out of here"

Acting more on autopilot than anything else, Raphael's body complied while his eyes were glued to the slim figure wielding a huge black blade facing a monster ten times her own size and not being allowed to do anything to protect her.

Mai prepared herself, there was only a slight chance she could end it now – and not trying to think of the reason behind it – settled herself into position as the creature started circling her.

Mai realized he had learned to be cautious around her and was actually trying to figure out when and where the turtles would appear – which would work to her advantage.

Acting on instinct when Mai moved loudly on purpose, the creature focused on her again. Very warily, it circled her one more time before deciding the turtles weren't there anymore at all.

It jumped, attacking her from behind, Mai turned around and jumped underneath it swinging her katana as the creature flew over her.

The blade struck flesh, slicing through bone with incredible power. But it wasn't the clean cut Mai could've made if both her arms had worked, instead the cut was crooked, slicing it in a jagged manner.

With an earsplitting scream of pain, Toxic-Stinger landed unbalanced on the ground behind Mai, its tail in front of her.

Having seen this, knowing what she could've done if she could use both her arms, made the turtles realize something crucial; much like the Shredder, this girl wouldn't hesitate to kill given the chance and, more importantly, that they actually _had_ gotten in her way.

Raphael had trouble processing this. He didn't know how he felt about this realization, whether it was in the difference in their strengths or the difference in their beliefs.

Blood seeped from both the tail and the creature, who tried to jump her again. Mai was able to dodge its large form more easily than before, without its tail to balance the large body out, it was rather clumsy. It tried to swing its large sharp paw at her, but missed, before deciding to run off.

Mai didn't pursue it, not because she didn't want to, but because she couldn't fight the beast anymore then it could fight her.

Her body trembled and her knees were shaking, but she was satisfied in knowing that at least now the creature wouldn't be able to hurt anyone anymore with shooting spines from its tail.

"If you are going to ask me to come along to your home" Mai began while she set down and painfully squeezed out of her jacket "Then I must decline"

The Turtles had appeared next to her with exactly that proposal.

"Why not?" Raphael demanded. Since their argument earlier he had regained his attitude.

Mai used her katana that was embedded in to the ground for half its length to rip her favorite jacket to pieces and continued on without saying a word while correcting her broken right arm, using the strips of cloth.

The sound of bones being erected was more powerful than anything Mai could've told them. Using the sheath that was attached to her backpack for the smaller knife that was still stuck in Toxic-Stingers chest, Mai placed it around her arm and began binding it.

Raphael growled angrily at her silence, clenching his teeth together as something in him snapped "What? We aren't good enough for you or something?! Simply because you have to follow that stupid code of honor of yours?!" No reaction "You are so STUB_BORN_!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, exploding.

Mai was placing the last knot in her bind, when he yelled that at her, making her tie it too tightly. She would have to redo it later.

"Excuse me?" Mai all but spat back, her accent thick in anger and stood up walking toward him "How dare you call _me_ stubborn! When _you _kept persisting I do things your way! Disrespecting me and all I stand for!" She growled back, standing so close she was shouting the words in his face.

"Okay, everybody calm down" Leonardo said, holding his hands up defensively and standing between the two.

"I am **_CALM!_**" The two yelled at him in unison and proceeded to growl at each other.

Leonardo backed off, seeing he would get burned if he intervened any longer.

Realizing how childish she was acting, Mai inhaled deeply to truly calm herself and stepped back a little "The point is I need to figure out what to do at the moment and I do not belief I can do so at your home…"

She said the last bit more towards Raphael then to the others, which angered him more than he thought it would.

Oh, so it was all his fault for saving her ass? For caring whether or not she died? He was about to fire those words at her when Michelangelo jumped in to save the day. Or rather, he thought he was doing so.

"That's not true!" Michelangelo burst out excitedly demonstrating everything what he was saying with his arms "Our home is the ultimate place to chillax and think about problems! Besides, we can help you and you can help us with the whole Shredder problem, right? Oh! And don't forget you need a good place to stay for the time being, so just come with us!"

"Is he always like this?" Mai questioned the other brothers.

They nodded in defeat.

Mai was going to get her sheath when Leonardo gave it a try, since Raphael was still fuming, grumbling incoherent words to himself with his back toward the girl "Mai, we" Raphael glared over his shell to his brother for using 'we' at the moment. Leonardo choose to ignore the glare and continued "are sorry for shaming your honor. We didn't mean to so and _we_" another fierce glare "would really want you to reconsider our offer"

"Besides, do you even have a safe place to sleep and rest your arm?" Donatello asked, thinking how unlikely that must be.

Mai had by then grabbed her katana less elegantly then she normally would have and sighed deeply, her eyebrows mushed together slightly as she thought.

It was silent for several moments.

Raphael had by now calmed down enough to realize that he was an idiot for talking to her the way he did. Yet he still had to figure out a way to talk to her without the heat of an argument.

"A safe place to stay," Mai suddenly repeated quietly and if they didn't know she was blind, they would have sworn she had been staring at the night sky "To rest, to think, to eat and sleep" Mai sighed again and turned around to face them, her signature smile on her lips, though it didn't hold any amusement like it did before. Now it seemed more bitter "What you have is a home and that is a place where I do not belong…"

And with that said, she turned on her heel again and started walking in the direction of the building they had jumped off moments ago - her slim weakened figure slowly fading in the distance.

"So I guess that means she isn't going to come with us, huh?" Michelangelo wondered aloud, looking at his brothers.

"Well, that was weird" Donatello commented, deep in thought, trying to figure out what she might have meant.

"Either way, we better get going" Leonardo said, turning around to get going when he suddenly saw that Raphael hadn't moved a muscle.

He stood with his hands clenched into fist and grinding his teeth together in anger, grumbling incoherent words again.

"Raph," Michelangelo asked cautiously "You okay dude?"

Donatello put a hand on Michelangelo's shoulder guiding him away from the bomb that was about to explode "I think he needs to be alone for now, Mikey" He muttered.

Having his two younger brothers leave, Leonardo glanced one last time before following them to head back to the lair and leave Raphael alone.

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

**UPDATE:** Now if you are reading (or rereading the story because of me taking too long to post a new chapter - _so, so_, sorry) this, it means you are reading my _rewritten_ version of the story (well, _rewritten_ is a big word, more like '**corrected**' version) One Purpose.

I am at a stage where I am going to TRY and correct all my mistakes and horrible grammar/spelling in the story, so bear with me for a little while...^^;

So I am busy _cleaning_ the story, if you will, all the way to chapter 12 - after that, I will upload chapter 13 ;)

Anyway, as always, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter so far, let me know what you think and I hope you will also enjoy the rest.

Lots of love,

Siaanna


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenager mutant ninja turtles)!

**One Purpose**

* * *

Chapter 5:

"Where are Raph and Mai?" April asked concerned walking up to the exhausted teens entering the lair.

"Mai and Raph…" Leonardo began and sighed deeply "Got into an…_argument_, so Raph stayed behind to get his anger out of his system and Mai…well, I think we won't be seeing her for a while"

His other two brothers went to sit on the couch and he followed them with April hot on his tail.

"An argument? About what?" She pressed, sounding rather shocked.

"Mai…" Donatello was the one who replied and stopped to choose his words accurately "…has a very different _view_ on how to do things then us and that ticked off Raph…a lot"

April frowned "So where is she now?"

"Don't know, she just went up and left us after the fight" Leonardo answered, hanging his head.

"My sons," Master Splinter entered the room looking at all of them "You have returned, was your mission successful?"

The three teens looked up to their master before they started to explain what had happened.

* * *

"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" Raphael growled, punching the wall of another building that stood closely next to the building he was standing on. He would have stayed in the park, but hearing the sirens of police cars nearing made him move his body elsewhere – so he ended up on a rooftop.

He didn't have any idea how long he had been there, cursing, kicking and punching at things. How could he be this stupid? To blow up like that and aim the flames of his anger towards the girl he liked.

The sheer thought earned the wall another punch, this time leaving a crack in the brown and red bricks.

Besides, wasn't it also partially her fault? For acting like a moron with a death wish? For being so _stubborn_,-!

"Hey"

Raphael was about to actually punch a hole into the wall when the familiar voice stopped him. Turning, he saw his brother jump onto the same rooftop.

Raphael furrowed his brow, glaring at his feet "I want to be alone, Leo"

"I know" Leonardo sighed and looked around the rooftop and at all the smashed objects, sighing internally, before looking back at his hotheaded brother. He was about to relay his message from Master Splinter to him when Raphael started to fume.

"She's just so stubborn! It's not our fault she wanted to do everything on her own!" He growled furiously, balling his fists.

"Personally," Leonardo commented after thinking it over "I don't get why you are so upset about this. I mean, we all hardly know her. So what's the point?"

Raphael growled at that.

Leonardo did have a point, but then again he didn't know about how much Raphael felt for Mai – neither did Raphael himself.

"Whatever, just go, I feel like staying up here for a while" Raphael said kicking at the wall.

Leonardo sighed, scratching the back of his head "I didn't come here to talk, Raph, Master Splinter send me to come and get you"

Raphael raised his brows at that. He knew it was dangers to be on the surface alone, but Master Splinter usually let him blow off steam as long as he needed to. "Why?"

"Because he wants to 'speak' with you" Leonardo relayed dryly, his patience thinning out. It had been a long day, not to mention the day before that. He had just spend the majority of his time explaining to his father what had happened and was send back to retrieve his brother – which proved harder to find then he had originally thought.

After abusing the wall one last time, Raphael walked passed his elder sibling with a permanent looking scowl on his face "Fine"

And so, the two headed back to the lair, their home, where Raphael would find himself in another bind.

* * *

"You wanted to see me, Master Splinter?" Raphael questioned, entering the dojo where their father was meditating under the tree that swirled upward.

Master Splinter looked up to see the young turtle stand by the door with balled hands – he smiled and gingerly gestured for him to enter further "Ah, Raphael, yes, come sit with me, my son"

Complying, the grumpy teen sat across from his father, glaring at the ground. Splinter regarded Raphael for a moment before speaking.

"Raphael," he began making the teen look up and simultaneously ending Raphael's glaring for he was now making eye contact "I heard from your brothers you got into an argument with Mai?" He questioned.

Embarrassment brought Raphael's eyes back to stare at the floor – he knew it was his fault that Mai didn't want to stay with them, but he still felt that this was also partially her fault too, for being so stuck in her stupid pride.

"It's just that she was so stubborn!" Raphael growled, scowling at the carpet as he fumed on "You should've seen it, sensei! If she had just let me help her out, if she would've worked together then we would have been done with that stupid mutant in a second,-!"

"Ah," Splinter interrupted, stroking his thin beard as if in thought while in actuality he cut right through the fuss and caught the issue by the horns "So you wanted to protect her?"

Raphael needed to think about that for a second "Well, yeah, I mean,-"

"And did she_ need_ your protection?" Master Splinter questioned.

"Uhm…" Raphael's eyes widened as his thoughts strangled him and his tongue tide itself around and around in panic when it slowly dawned upon him "I,-"

"Raphael," Master Splinter interrupted him again before the young turtle would come up with any excuses befitting to his own truth "Mai is no normal human, she is a Samurai, just as strong as you and your brothers. As Ninja, we are trained to analyze a situation thoroughly before making decisions that may or may not make the situation worse," Leaning down a bit to lay his hand on the teens shoulder, Splinter looked his son in the eye meaningfully "no matter how we feel about the person involved in the situation"

"THEY TOLD YOU?!" Raphael shouted, shooting up and balling his hands he growled angrily "I'm going to smack the green of off them!"

"Raphael," Splinter said. Raphael quickly cooled down at the tone his father was giving him. Splinter stood as well, raising an eyebrow at his hotheaded son "Your brothers didn't tell on you, only the blind,-" Splinter stopped in his tracks as Raphael gave him a look at the mention of 'the blind' "My mistake" He chuckled apologetically.

"I screwed up, I know that sensei, I'm sorry" Raphael said hanging his head in defeat.

"It is not me who you should be apologizing to, my son" Splinter remarked while walking past his son towards his room and gently sliding one door open – Raphael followed him with his eyes "If you really like this girl," Splinter said while stepping inside "Then you should make amends" Then he shut the sliding door.

Raphael contemplated the advice giving to him by his father when suddenly very quickly the sliding door reopened, Splinter peering through "And don't forget to respect her decisions or play hero when it isn't needed"

"Hai, sensei" Raphael huffed embarrassed before Splinter shut the door again and he was stomping off to his room to think about how he would try and make 'amends' with Mai.

* * *

The streets were filling with people, people who had homes and jobs and families to attend to. The city began its usual morning hassle accompanied by loud and angry noises.

Most people were too busy with their own lives to pay attention to the new sidewalk attribution that lay barely hidden by the trash containers.

But most people didn't have that much heart for helping others as Jim Hudson did. The middle aged man was walking to his private clinic, in his regular grey suit and blue tie, when he saw the new addition among the homeless.

She lay behind a trash container, clutching a hockey stick bag to her chest with her good arm and protectively lying the other broken one hidden behind it.

He simply couldn't help himself.

"Miss?"

The girl didn't say a word, so he presumed she was asleep. Crouching to gently shake her, he could now see her crooked looking arm.

"Miss? Missss?" He urged, shaking her shoulder.

The girl responded with a groan.

"Come now, you've gotta wake up" Jim smiled, giving her another shake "You won't let an old man like me carry you, now will you?"

Mai woke up feeling like she might have been hit by a truck the other day, the man that was persistently addressing her as 'Miss' and shaking her, was stretching her delicate morning nerves.

"Am I in the way?" She questioned hoarsely, it happened often enough that she would fall asleep somewhere without realizing it was an entrance or an exit of some kind.

"No, no, no" Jim assured her and pulled back his hand from her shoulder as she began to sit up right "But a girl like you shouldn't be living on the streets" Jim gave her a stern look and paused for a moment to let the girl get herself together "Your arm, it was broken recently, wasn't it? Did you do try and correct it by yourself?"

The noise of their surroundings, including the man's questions, with Mai's groggy sleepy state was stretching out her nerves even more tightly.

"Come, I'll take you to my clinic to fix that arm of yours and get you some breakfast" The man offered chuckling as Mai blushed at the sound of her growling stomach.

* * *

A few days had passed and Raphael, in the way he was, was already back to his normal physical state. He was silently moving through the sewers. He had successfully found along bloody trail and was now in the process of tracking down the creature who left it.

After musing it over in his room (and talking it over with Spike) while he rested, he came to the conclusion that, if he wanted to make amends with Mai, he would do so by retrieving her blade from the beast.

No one knew what he was doing and it was better that way too – he wanted to do this on his own since it was he who screwed up and so he had to fix it.

The sewer was especially silent, there were no rats or any other critters in the area to make any noise, signaling to Raphael that he was getting close.

Moving forward and hiding in the shadows, he was starting to get closer to his target. Or at least, that was what he thought.

Lurking in the shadow of another large pipe, the creature awoke when something fast passed it by. Recognizing what it was by smell, Toxic-Stinger growled lowly, its thick neck shaking with the vibration. The pain in the creature's chest kept Toxic-Stinger in a constant state of fury, making it very easy to set off in a destructive frenzy.

Raphael heard it and turned to see the creature leap at him - all be it a bit clumsy, he could still simply crush the young ninja by its weight alone.

Barely dodging it, Raphael took out his Sai as the beast got back on his feet "And here I thought you would be rotting somewhere and make this easy for me" He grinned with that insane glint in his eyes that lust for battle.

With a roar from both the mutants, they engaged each other with claws and ancient weaponry.

* * *

Mai walked up the stone steps that led to the front door and opened it with her key with her good arm while the other was in a brand new cast. She still had to figure out, how in this situation, she wasn't a hypocrite.

She blamed that old man for being so cunning, for being so undeniably good and kind that she didn't dare refuse his offer.

Hell with that, he downright blackmailed her.

Discovering that she was blind, with no family, passport or a legal pass to stay in the country, he given her two options – either let him take care of her and give her a place to stay, or he would report her and she'd be kicked out of the country.

If Mai had been able to hide herself from sight like a ninja could, she would've laughed at him and run for it.

She did however, try and explain her reason why she was here and told him all about how her Duty and Honor would force her to kill a man.

It didn't faze him a bit.

He simply brushed it off, saying he had no hand in what she planned to do outside the house as long as she didn't drag him into it.

Now here she was, living in the same house as if she was a granddaughter of a man she barely even knew. But Mai had come to realize that Jim was one of those very rare people who were, simply put, _good_.

Even if he did his good deeds somewhat forcefully.

Like how he made her help him out by doing chores or help around the clinic – it had only been a few days, but she found all of these schemes of his very distracting of her original goal; killing Oroku Saki.

She still wasn't any closer than she was before, still walking the streets at night in the hopes of hearing the soft footfall of the Foot ninja roaming around so she could beat some information out of them. But no such luck.

Mai hung her head and sighed while pushing the door open but stopped herself from entering the house.

She heard something familiar landing on the roof coming and turned her blind gaze up to it. Not hesitating for a second, Mai jumped up the roof just as fast, greeting the turtle with a scowl on her face.

"I thought we said our goodbye's?" Mai questioned curtly.

Raphael took a deep breath to calm himself – he didn't expect her to react like that. Also, his body was still pretty sore from the fight he had a few days ago, not to mention the effort he put in tracking her down in those days since the fight and,-

No.

He was here to make amends, not to start another argument. Bowing very formally, he choose his words very carefully, surprising Mai "I came here to make amends for my actions and hope you will forgive me, I didn't mean to offend you"

Inexperienced with someone apologizing _to_ her, Mai's cheeks flushed faint pink "Iya, Iya, please, you do not have to be so…so formal with me" She answered self-consciously – she felt awkward with being treated with so much respect, though it had been what she wanted from the being, receiving in this kind of manner was unknown to the girl.

Raphael glanced up and saw her light pink cheeks and then feeling his own face heat up. Standing upright, Raphael grabbed the knife he had retrieved from Toxic-Stinger "I know you would probably wanted to get it back yourself, but…well, I wanted to make it up to you somehow, so here" He held out his large hand clutching around the blade itself, careful not to cut himself.

Mai reached out, sensing where he had stretched out his hand and gently grasping the handle. Her hand tingled and send a warm chill of familiarity through arm to the rest of her body.

They stood like that for a moment before Mai pulled lightly on the knife, Raphael released his grip.

"Dõmo" Mai muttered rather shyly.

"No problem" Raphael replied, grinning slightly as he continued to stare at her unabashedly.

She didn't know how to face the young turtle she thought to be a helpless boy. It amazed her he could pull off such an incredible feat.

"Hey, did you see a doctor or something?" Raphael suddenly interrupted her thoughts when his eyes focused on her brand new and professional looking cast with a rather accusing sounding question. It suddenly dawned on him that she was entering the building they were standing on "Do you live here?" He pointed down to the building, something she didn't see but felt.

Mai slightly cringed "I can explain" she responded hastily which only ticked him off more since it made her sound like she was guilty of something.

Crossing his arms, Raphael turned his skeptical gaze upon her "Fine then, explain how you are _not_ being a hypocrite"

Feeling annoyed herself, Mai felt her own temper rise up again "Could you _stop_ making your own conclusions for once and _listen_ to what I have to say?" She reasoned through her teeth.

A vein popped angrily on Raph's forehead and before she knew it he was back in her face growling "I could, but then again, why would I when you are the one who kept going on and on about how you didn't need anybody's help and yet, here you are, standing on top on some fancy looking apartment with your arm healing nicely due to you going to a hospital for hel,-"

"And here I thought you wanted to make amends" Mai muttered, more to herself than towards Raphael. She sounded sincerely disappointed, bringing Raph down from his flare of anger.

"I'm sorry" Raphael apologized quickly and took a step back from her "I didn't mean to snap at you like that…I have…trouble with controlling my temper" He admitted ashamed.

Mai had trouble deciphering what to say to that, she too got angry, but it seemed it was linked with his.

The silence, that was filled with background noise of the fast city, continued on.

Raphael felt like he was going to explode again, but this time with frustration and insecurity rather than just anger, when finally, Mai spoke in those low quiet tones of hers "I understand, I will try to be considerate then"

Raphael exhaled a breath he had been holding "yeah.." he answered lamely before continuing in a tone much closer to his normal sassiness "And then I will try and not be so…judgmental all the time"

The two smiled, they were both such idiots.

"So tell me, how did you end up here?" Raphael asked, more curious now then he was before.

Mai suddenly realized she left the front door open "Oh, could I tell you about that later?" She asked sounding apologetically.

Raph held his tongue for a moment. Inhaling a calming breath, he answered normally "Yeah sure"

His heart made a little flipflop at the bright smile she was giving him "Dõmo" Mai thanked him with a slight bow "I will see you tomorrow again? Same time, same place?" She pointed to the roof to be sure he got what she meant.

"Uh…uhm…sure" Raphael stuttered.

"Okay, see you tomorrow then" Mai grinned and got down to the front door. She still needed to do some chores before Jim got home, but was glad to meet with Raphael again and talk things out.

Raphael had turned to stone for a couple of minutes, realizing he sort of had a date with Mai tomorrow, right? Could he call it a date?

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

**UPDATE:** Now if you are reading (or rereading the story because of me taking too long to post a new chapter - _so, so_, sorry) this, it means you are reading my _rewritten_ version of the story (well, _rewritten_ is a big word, more like '**corrected**' version) One Purpose.

I am at a stage where I am going to TRY and correct all my mistakes and horrible grammar/spelling in the story, so bear with me for a little while...^^;

So I am busy _cleaning_ the story, if you will, all the way to chapter 12 - after that, I will upload chapter 13 ;)

Anyway, as always, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter so far, let me know what you think and I hope you will also enjoy the rest.

Lots of love,

Siaanna


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

**One Purpose**

* * *

Chapter 6

"How's the arm?" Jim asked, his warm tones filling the hallway as he closed the front door behind him and hung up his coat.

It was about 1 a.m. and he just came home from work. He grinned when he saw the girl sitting cross-legged on the floor in the middle of the living room with one hand gently laid on one knee while the other hung in a sling.

Apparently, she felt the need that the couch and coffee table had been in the way of her using his fancy Chinese rug for her meditations.

Mai didn't answer, deep in her trance, and the middle aged man simply smirked – this was the ninth time he had come home to this; the girl had a habit of turning his designer living room upside down for her 'feng shui' nonsense as he preferred to call it. Not that he minded that much though, he found it highly amusing.

It was definitely better then coming home from work and having to feel that void that the large building seemed to echo throughout every crack and cringle.

Jim had been married once, something Mai didn't know because she didn't have the ability to see, so she never questioned the golden enlaced with silver ring on the man's finger.

Though it didn't have the tragic story most people would think it had when they saw the ring and heard there wasn't a woman that bared the same ring any longer. But it still stung and left the man with a terrible heartache every time he had to explain.

In many respects, Jim was a loving, caring and generous man, who treated people with respect and dignity no matter who they were or what they did. He didn't smoke, seldom drank and never did any illegal drugs. He never forget birthday's or to say 'I love you'. He was even an exceptional good lover in bed.

And yet his wife left him for another.

If there was one major flaw in Jim's life, it was his passion to help others, eventually making him a workaholic.

No, he never forgot birthday's - he would preorder a gift and send them to the person with a postcard saying he got trampled at work again and wished them a nice day. It was the same with his wife.

Whenever he came home from work, he would spend his last few hours behind his laptop, working to email or file away things that he found too important to leave until morning before going to bed, leaving his wife to find herself falling asleep alone and waking up alone again.

It was no wonder that after years and years of neglect, his wife found someone who did give all his love and attention to her only and left him.

Though Jim recognized his fault in what happened, he never would've thought that the love of his life would abandon their vows to run away with another.

It had been years since then and still the man loved her with all his heart, silently praying every night, hoping for her to one day return so he could prove himself a worthy husband.

But these thoughts didn't roam his mind when entering his house nowadays, for he found himself distracted by the amusement the adolescent was giving him with her bizarre foreign mannerisms.

"Mai," He called over his shoulder while he walked down the hallway to the dining room, undoing his tie "I know you might not be listening, or rather paying attention, but wouldn't it be a good idea if you did these things in your room?" After no response Jim frowned a little, deep in thought himself all of a sudden while he looked at the antique clock that hung on the wall "And shouldn't you be in bed already?"

"No" Mai answered quietly from behind him, she had followed him from the moment he walked passed her.

Jim almost had a heart attack and leaped into the air. Once he was over his hysterics, he frowned at her what should have been a scowl "You really need to stop sneaking up on people"

"I apologize" Mai bowed her head slightly, her lips curling at the edge into a small smile.

Jim simply shook his head with a smile and then regarded her for a moment "But I really think you should go to bed earlier than you do now, I know staying up late is fun and all,-"

"I am _not_ a child, Hudson-san, I am nineteen years old" Mai scowled, a sternness in her voice that suggested that _she_ was the adult scowling a child.

It only made him laugh "Okay, okay" Jim said apologetically, but the sincerity was lost due to the slight snicker in his voice.

Mai sighed, hands on her hips as she continued "Also, the meditative techniques I am using require space and silence, _my room_ is lacking in the former, I cannot do it there"

"Then why don't you go do it outside then? Central park is a great place to,-"

Mai snorted "You are blessed if you think any place outside thick walls in this city can be 'silent'"

Jim scratched the back of his head "Well, yeah, it we do live inNew York, it's called 'the city that never sleeps' for a reason"

Mai sighed deeply. She truly did miss her Masters mansion and dojo, far away from the loud and disturbing city life, buried deep within the Japanese landscape.

"You know…" Jim suddenly began, musing over a solution that would save his furniture and help Mai do whatever she needed to do "…this building always had a rather large attic"

After locating the key, Jim and Mai made their way up the flight of stairs and entered the abandoned attic after unlocking the door and let it creak open.

"Hmmm, definitely needs some dusting…" Jim mumbled to himself looking around and then tried to switch the light on "…and perhaps a new light bulb"

"No need," Mai smiled, listening how quiet it was as Jim face-palmed himself for his dumb remark "this is perfect"

"Well, the place is yours, use it however you like" Jim offered, putting his hands in his pockets and yawning.

Mai turned and bowed deeply "Dōmo arigatōgozaimashita"

Jim blinked, he didn't know a word Japanese, but he had a feeling it meant 'thank you' "…uhm, your welcome?"

Mai's little smile curved her lips again at the sound of his confused voice and stood up right. What a strange bunch of people she has encountered.

* * *

Raphael was in a particular good mood the next morning. He had come home with the others sound asleep, so they didn't know whether or not he had been able to find Mai this time and make amends.

Entering the dojo after devouring his cereal and feeding Spike, Raphael sat down next to Leonardo with a bright grin on his usual sullen looking face.

"You appear to be in a good mood, Raph" Leonardo commented as he observed his brother sideways as they waited for their Sensei.

"Something like that" Raphael smirked.

Donatello who was still tired from working on his latest 'secret' project throughout most nights these days, hadn't noticed Raphael's change in mood. But after Leonardo's comment, he started to pay attention to their conversation.

Michelangelo on the other hand was still silently snoring away, he had been quietly playing a video game late into the night and was therefore still catching up on his sleep and not paying attention at all, as usual.

"Don't tell me," Leonardo grinned "You actually found Mai, didn't you?"

"What did she say?" Donatello added, his curiosity giving him an energy boast. He had been very skeptical about Raphael being able to actually apologize to Mai – since they were so different – but seeing Raphael's upbeat demeanor, he realized he had jumped to a conclusion far too quickly.

Raphael's smile became more smug, his voice on the overconfident side "Well, once I apologized and all, she thanked me for bringing back her knife and,-"

"Wait," Leonardo interrupted, his expression changing from surprise to an half scowl "You went after that Toxic-Stinger thing _by yourself_?"

Rolling his eyes, Raphael snorted at the tone Leonardo was giving him "_Please_, after that last fight, Toxic-Stinger was hardly a threat,-"

Mad, Leonardo stood to yell at Raphael, waking up a disorientated Michelangelo "_Hardly-a-threat_?! Are you completely out of you mind?! We could barely take that thing down as a group! Raph, what _were_ you thinking?!"

Raphael was quick on his feet and in Leo's face to yell right back at him "Would you just for once let me finish a sentence and listen to me! I don't need you to baby over me _Leo_!"

The two teens growled at each other while the two younger brothers backed up a few meters, Michelangelo asking Donatello what the shell was going on when the door slid open.

"What is this noise so early in the morning!" Splinter demanded, scowling at his sons as he approached them.

"We're sorry, Sensei" Leonardo bowed in apology.

"Hmm. What was this yelling about?" Splinter questioned cocking an eyebrow, stroking his long thin beard.

Raphael gritted his teeth when his other brothers stayed silent, leaving him to his own devices. Taking a deep breath he stepped forward, scratching the back of his head while trying to find the right words "Uhm…well, you see Master Splinter, remember that you told me to make amends with Mai?" Raphael stalled a bit before continuing "Well, I did last night, by retrieving her blade to her…"

Splinter had closed his eyes while listening and nodded in approval, opening his eyes "Ah, this is good"

"…by fighting Toxic-Stinger on my own…" Raphael muttered, looking away from his sensei, who hung his head at hearing that.

"So I told him he shouldn't have gone on his own" Leonardo added righteously, crossing his arms. Raphael growled at his elder brother.

"Raphael," Splinter spoke his name loudly to get his attention. Raphael immediately froze up and looked at his father.

Sighing in slight disappointment, the rat-man addressed his second eldest son in a stern tone "Though I do not approve of your recklessness, I am still glad to hear you were able to make amends with Mai" Raphael's stiff form relaxed as he thought he was off the hook "But, if you were to do something like this again" Splinter spoke in low threatening tones "Be sure that there will _consequences _for your actions"

Raphael swallowed loudly and Michelangelo chuckled quietly, but not quietly enough. As soon as Master Splinter's back was on them, Raphael smacked his little brother and their day continued in its regular pace.

Only for Raphael it felt like it was ticking a bit slower.

* * *

At the end of the day, when night began to fall he was ready to leave to be on his way to Mai's place when Leonardo stopped him.

"Raph?" Leonardo questioned raising an eyebrow when he saw Raphael heading out "Where are you going?"

"Uh…" Raphael turned his torso to look at his brothers, who were staring at him with questioning looks "I'm going out" He said brusquely, but fooled no one.

Both Michelangelo and Donatello exchanged looks and grinned widely – they were about to make 'girlfriend-jokes' when Leonardo continued seriously "What about our evening patrol?"

Raphael turned his whole body this time as Leonardo had stepped a bit closer "What about it, Leo?"

"What about it? What's up with the attitude Raph? Normally you're the one more excited about our patrol then all of us combined" Leo commented calmly, not letting his irritation show.

"Yeah, well," Raphael's head started to reel, trying to think up a response that was both logical with which he could go see Mai and snappy so he could put his brother in his place. It wasn't really working out "I thought I…would sit this one out…so you guys can also fight…on your own for once"

He felt stupid just listening to himself.

"Oh really? So this has nothing to with the fact that you made amends with Mai?" Leonardo remarked, a small grin on his face as he saw Raphael open his mouth and close it again "Turtles first, right Raphael?" Leonardo reminded his hot tempered brother with a bit more satisfaction than he should.

But hey, it was not every day that you could make someone regret the words they once said to you – especially if that someone was Raphael.

* * *

Mai had been sure he was supposed to be here ten minutes ago. Though she could not actually check the time by looking at the clock, she had however an incredible sense of time since that had been drilled into her brain by her very punctual Master all those years ago.

Feeling a bit anxious and deciding what to do, Mai stood for she had been sitting on the edge of the building, about to go back inside when a sound disturbed the other noises in her surroundings.

Turning her head to where she heard the noise, it had become more and more distinct.

Raphael landed with a loud smack on the roof, his breathing irregular, bend over to support his form on his knees "Sorry *gasp* I'm late" He wheezed.

"Raphael-san" Mai ran over to him, worried he might be wounded, she put her hand on his back "What happened?"

Raphael let himself fall on his butt and inhaled deeply a couple of times to catch his breath before answering her "Nothing really, just patrolling with my brothers, so I had to run several blocks to be here on time"

Mai's worry faded and she smiled "I'm glad"

Raphael blushed when he suddenly realized how close she was to him. She had sunk down, to lean on the balls of her feet, her hand still on his shell. He swallowed.

"Are you thirsty?" Mai asked when she heard him swallow, thinking he might be dehydrated from all the running. She stood holding out her hand to pull him up "Come, I will make us some tea"

Raphael stared at the hand before taking it, a little jolt of excitement shot through him when he took it and once pulled up, she didn't let his hand go, guiding him inside.

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

**UPDATE:** Now if you are reading (or rereading the story because of me taking too long to post a new chapter - _so, so_, sorry) this, it means you are reading my _rewritten_ version of the story (well, _rewritten_ is a big word, more like '**corrected**' version) One Purpose.

I am at a stage where I am going to TRY and correct all my mistakes and horrible grammar/spelling in the story, so bear with me for a little while...^^;

So I am busy _cleaning_ the story, if you will, all the way to chapter 12 - after that, I will upload chapter 13 ;)

Anyway, as always, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter so far, let me know what you think and I hope you will also enjoy the rest.

Lots of love,

Siaanna


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

**One Purpose**

* * *

Chapter 7

Mai stood frowning before walking into the street towards the rather large shopping mall. Jim had ordered her to 'go buy some clothes' since she only kept wearing the same clothes every day.

Unbeknownst to her, it was for him a means to get her out of the house and clinic for once, for she didn't indulge herself in what he considered something normal a girls her age were supposed to do. _Shopping._

Though the good doctor hadn't really thought the plan through, since Mai was so aware of everything around her, people tend to forget that she was actually blind.

And so, after kicking her out of the clinic in the middle of a sunny Saturday afternoon, Jim's face had begun to pale, realizing his mistake once he watched her walk off into the distance.

Now the blind Samurai had to succeed in her greatest task yet, or else be denied her beloved training space.

Sighing, Mai headed in the direction of the mall to undergo this new experience all on her,-

"Mai?"

Having been trained for years to memorize all sounds gave Mai the advantage over her enemies, or in this case, April O'Neil.

April could've spotted Mai from a mile – the redhead couldn't help but think that Mai looked out of place. Even though the city was so big with so many different people, the Samurai had a vibe going that April couldn't quite put her finger on.

Making Mai much easier to spot in a crowd for April's sharp senses.

"April O'Neil" Mai greeted with a nod to the girl she had saved all but a month ago.

"What are you doing here?" April asked and then quickly added "Not that I want to be noisy or anything"

"_Jim_ thinks I need new clothing" Mai sighed, using the elder man's first name after he persisted she should.

"Jim?" April frowned while the two began walking towards the mall.

"Oh" Mai just realized that she had made the assumption that April should have known Jim and blushed slightly in embarrassment of it "My apologies. Jim is…a man who picked me off the street the morning after the fight with the beast. He took care of my wound and took me in" Mai explained.

"You don't have to apologize" April smiled gently as they crossed the street "He sounds like a nice guy"

Now April was the person who assumed too much, Mai snorted "He is an old fart who likes bossing me around because he thinks I am a helpless blind person. He threatened to call the police and have me kicked out of the country if I refused his offer to both take shelter at his home and let him fix my arm" She pointed to the latter which still hung nicely in the sling.

The plaster had been removed just today, but it was still bandaged tightly. Jim had made her promise not to do anything with it yet – like lifting weights or do push-ups.

April raised her brows up high "Wait. So a strange old man has been taking care of you this whole time?" She questioned, shocked and worried at the same time.

Mai raised a single brow, the two girls had stopped walking altogether on the sidewalk beside the mall "Yes"

"Mai! That's incredibly dangerous! Haven't you ever heard about stranger-danger? Or that you shouldn't trust man who offer you cand,-" Somewhere along the line April realized how ridiculous she sounded.

This was a Samurai she was ranting to about not trusting people you just meet because they could have been dangerous. April hung her head in her hands and muttered "Nice going April"

Mai put her hand on April shoulder and smiled her tiny smile "You are forgiven, but only if you help me with something…"

April blinked, did Mai plan on something dangerous "Okay? What is it?" She questioned, not sure of her abilities to fight yet. She had been training with Master Splinter for a while now…did Mai sense that she was ready or something?

"Well I…" Mai's mouth closed for a moment, her face feeling hot with embarrassment over something she hadn't thought possible. Because for this instance, she truly was at the mercy of another person.

Which made her ramble in an awkward attempt to explain it all "…have _never_ done this before – usually I always have gotten clothes from my Master – which were all the same – so I never had to think about what I wore or looked like – actually I never worried about my clothing – though I did like my short jacket – but this is new and I don't know what size I have or what colors would suit me, I,-" Mai hung her head, cutting herself off before she would ramble even more embarrassing things to the girl.

What a mess, here she had been thinking she was such an adult all this time to finally realize she was still a brat herself. She would have to chew Jim out for this later.

April had already realized this had to do something with clothes instead of a dangerous mission and felt equally embarrassed – only difference was that Mai couldn't see that on her face.

So she took pity and smile gently "So this is about getting you some new clothes?"

Mai nodded and, with a taste for revenge upon the man who send her here with his credit-card, she smiled brightly "And perhaps some new training equipment, if it is not too much to ask"

The two walked into the mall "Nah, I didn't have much to do today, so I was going to buy some new socks anyway"

"Thank you" Mai smiled, her embarrassed already gone.

"You're welcome, and hey, it's the least I can do after you saved me" April winked and then face-palmed herself when she remembered Mai couldn't see her do that.

* * *

It took less time than April thought to buy clothes for her blind friend, after finding out the girl basically wanted the same that she had, only new. So April took Mai to Mr. Murakami to eat pizza gyoza.

"This is really good, Murakami-san" Mai said, amazed, while throwing another piece in her mouth.

"Thank you, Mai-chan, how nice to hear a new customer likes my food" Mr. Murakami smiled as he continued to work and serve other costumers.

When the two were done, they thanked Mr. Murakami and headed out.

"If you want, I can walk you home" Mai offered, though she didn't plan on letting the girl walk home alone.

"That's okay, I always walk home alone" April smiled and held up her hand in refusal "Besides, wouldn't it be hard for you to find your way back,-"

"Not at all," Mai cut off "either way, I find that I wish to know where you live, in case _anything_ _happens_"

The way Mai said it, had April's senses sharpened and she suddenly became aware of what was lurking in the shadows.

In an overly acted voice, April hooked her free arm with Mai's good arm and dragged the Samurai with her "Of course! Let's go to my place! There we can watch movies!" and quickly asked quietly while she took out her T-phone and texted Donatello "What do you think is watching us?"

Mai listened. They weren't really well trained, punks, only a small group. "A gang" Mai answered silently clutching the Bokken they had purchased at the martial arts shop.

"The Purple Dragons" April silently growled.

April led them around a corner, where they waited. Mai dropped the bags, holding the Bokken ready. It was way too light for her taste, but perhaps it was a good thing since they were only dealing with a couple of thugs anyway.

Then suddenly, a van pulled up across from them. Mai listened as the thugs stopped in their tracks and deciding against witnesses seeing them mug some girls when the doors of the van opened.

"The Kraang" April said in fear.

"Those weird Robots?" Mai questioned when they started to fire at them or more specifically, at Mai for their objective was to capture April.

Other than having any real weapons on her, Mai's Bokken broke the second she hit one of those robotic bodies, not leaving a scratch on them while April managed to stay out of their grasp. Mai cursed the fact that she couldn't take her real weapons with her.

"April, just run!" Mai yelled, kicking one of the Kraang hard enough that it fell to the ground.

"What about you?!" April yelled back, ducking and rolling to the side.

"I'll be fine!" Mai shouted, pushing two Kraang bots to the side while holding onto the gun which had a knife to it. She used it to make an escape route for April "Now go!"

Feeling like she didn't have another choice, April ran out of the street and into an alley, the Kraang that tried to follow her were cut down by Mai. A second and third van pulled up behind her and metallic arms clamped around her body.

Managing to hide, April saw how the Kraang stunned Mai with electricity and, unable to find her, loaded Mai into one of the vans.

Without a second thought as the last Kraang bot closed the car door behind him, April jumped on the side of the car, holding on for dear life as they took off.

* * *

Raphael was leading the way, in a hurry to get to Mai and April. He didn't have the faintest idea why Mai had let April text them about the Purple Dragons – they were small fry.

Suddenly, Donatello's phone rang with April's tone "Hello, April?" Donatello answered it and his confused face turned into full on shock "Mai is captured by the _KRAANG_?!"

"What? That's not possible" Michelangelo said skeptically and 'pfft-ing' at the sheer notion "I see what they are doing, April and Mai are just playing a prank on us, dudes. She can cut them in half in one blow"

"Shut it, Mikey, or so help me, I will,- " Raphael growled dangerously behind his little brother while they jumped up before he was cut off by Leonardo.

"Quite it, the both of you" Leonardo jumped down and plucked the T-phone out of Donatello's hand "April, listen, you just find a safe place to hide, we will deal with the Kraang"

While his brothers ran, Raphael felt his anger boil. The Kraang had done it this time, he would crush those slimes, if they so much as left a scratch on her…

"April, you have got to stop doing such dangerous things! Just wait until we get there" Leonardo ordered and gave the phone back to Donatello, who pocketed it.

"Where to, Leo?" Donatello asked, running closely next to his elder brother.

"They took her to some old warehouse, April will be waiting for us there" Leonardo informed his brothers and they headed for the location April had given them.

After a moment they found April hiding in one of the alleys surrounding the building.

"April, you okay?" was the first thing Donatello asked, concern and relief written all over his face.

"I'm fine, Donnie, but I don't know what they are going to do with Mai" She answered, guilt in her eyes.

"You sure she is inside?" Raphael asked, a dark tone in his voice.

"Yeah, of course I am" April frowned, but her eyebrows rose high when Raphael suddenly stormed up the building.

"Raph! What are you doing?!" Leonardo shouted after him, as his brother climbed up the building to the window.

"Yeah man! I want to save Mai too!" Michelangelo yelled, recklessly following Raphael.

"Mikey, wait! Guys, we can't go in without a plan! Raph! Stop!" Leonardo yelled, panic overwhelming him as his brothers kept ignoring him. He sighed, both him and Donatello following the two idiots.

"We'll be right back, April" Donatello promised and they disappeared.

"Be careful" April whispered concerned, holding her arms over each other for comfort. Even though she never really interacted much with Raphael like she did with Donatello or Michelangelo, the look he had in his eyes while walking passed her made her realize he wasn't himself at all. And she wondered whether she should worry about that effecting the safety of his brothers…

* * *

_"__Wanting to be a hero, wanting to save others. That kind of arrogance disgusts me…" _

The words that were from a long time ago spun under the surface of her consciousness and Mai shook her head and groaned quietly.

She was sitting upright on a chair, her arms bound behind her by chains that also ran along the rest of her torso. The Kraang had _not_ been gentle with her right arm, she felt it ache and throb while she became conscious.

"Kraang, these bags which contain clothes are clothes not suited for Kraang" One of the Kraang told another Kraang that was pulling out a shirt and holding it onto its body.

"Kraang, is wrong, Kraang will look very good in the clothing from the bags which contain clothing which is now of Kraang"

Were they discussing the clothes she and April bought? Why on earth would they take it with them in the first place?

Mai ignored it.

They hadn't removed her sunglasses and so they didn't know she was awake, she doubted she would be saved by the turtles in time and so she would have to seek her own rescue. But trying would cause them to figure out she is awake and shoot her.

Ah, this was frustrating.

This wasn't supposed to happen and with the old memory lingering close to the surface, Mai's thoughts became bitter.

Wasn't she just postponing the inevitable anyway?

* * *

"Mikey! Raph!" Leonardo yelled as quietly as he could while he and Donatello followed the trail of empty Kraang bots "If Master Splinter hears of this, we are _so_ not allowed to patrol again!" He hissed furiously.

The building had been bigger than they thought, Donatello commenting that it might be mapped out like a labyrinth, with all the halls twisting and turning leading to the center.

Up ahead they heard fighting and saw Michelangelo rolling and dodging around for his life "Guys!" He yelled in both relief and panic "Raph has gone totally ballistic!"

Though the turtle mentioned was nowhere to be found, leaving the youngest brother to fend for himself.

After dealing with the few Kraang that were left, Donatello helped their younger brother up "What do you mean, Mikey?"

Shaking his head to get the buzz out of his ears, Michelangelo grabbed Donatello's shoulders tightly, pulling the taller turtle close "He has the crazy eyes, D! And I mean _waaaaay_ more than usual! I think he has gone completely mental, bro!"

Leonardo's frown deepened "Then we got to stop him before he does something stupid"

"But how? These hallways go on and on, Leo, I don't think we will be able to catch up to him in time" Donatello stated worriedly.

Leonardo looked around them, his thoughts grim. He mused for a moment when suddenly something caught his eye "Gentlemen, I think I know what to do" He said grinning at his brothers.

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

**UPDATE:** Now if you are reading (or rereading the story because of me taking too long to post a new chapter - _so, so_, sorry) this, it means you are reading my _rewritten_ version of the story (well, _rewritten_ is a big word, more like '**corrected**' version) One Purpose.

I am at a stage where I am going to TRY and correct all my mistakes and horrible grammar/spelling in the story, so bear with me for a little while...^^;

So I am busy _cleaning_ the story, if you will, all the way to chapter 12 - after that, I will upload chapter 13 ;)

Anyway, as always, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter so far, let me know what you think and I hope you will also enjoy the rest.

Lots of love,

Siaanna


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

**One Purpose**

* * *

Chapter 8

Raphael was beating the crap out of the Kraang, his anger working his muscles. His mind focused on one thing; the destruction of any Kraang stupid enough to stand in his way.

Smashing another robotic head in, a side door opened and more Kraang came into the hallway. Seeing the trail of their fellow species lying defeated on the floor made a few of them hesitate – that was all he needed.

But there were more Kraang now than Raphael could handle on his own. He was able to hold his own with his Sai. Raphael jumped over them, making a mistake and suddenly stood locked between the powerful Robot bodies.

Holding his Sai's up to stop them from slicing him to pieces with the razors on their guns Raphael's knees started to shake under the weight and applied pressure with one Kraang bot after another jumping on him to hold him. A couple of other Kraang aimed their weapons at him, ready to fire when his brothers came to his rescue.

Using the ventilation-shafts, they had cut over the labyrinth like hallways and found Raphael in a few minutes.

Having his brothers with him, Raphael ducked, letting the Kraang fall face first to the floor and with their help, destroyed the robot bodies.

"Took you long enough" Was all the temperamental turtle planned to say to his brothers, ready to use their new found passage way when he was stopped by Michelangelo's Kusarigama swinging around his body and pulled him down mid jump.

"Hey!" Raphael yelped in surprise, but was quick to aim his anger towards the cause of his temporary enchainment "Mikey, what's the big idea?!" Raphael growled, glaring at his little brother into a size smaller.

"It's for your own good, bro" Michelangelo squeaked in angst, Raphael looked so furious it scared him.

Raphael growled viciously at his little brother, ready to bite his head off and chew him out when Leonardo stepped in between them.

"Raph," Leonardo scowled, his tone stern but level "You better get your head together before you get all of us killed"

"What the shell are you talking about?! The longer we sit here _wasting_ time, those Kraang slimes might do something to her!" Raphael shouted, his featured set in permanent rage.

"I know, but the way you are now will only put her, yourself and us at risk" Leonardo calmly replied and got down on eye level, putting his hand on Raphael's shoulder, calmly trying to reason with his enraged sibling "If you really want to save her, then you have to control your anger, Raph. Remember what Sensei told you "

"Think about it logically, if we all go down here, nobody will get saved" Donatello pointed out. This was normally a moment where Raphael would comment on with a snarky 'Thank you Captain Obvious'.

Even though his blood still boiled, Raphael had gained enough sanity to take a deep breath. Exhaling, he found himself still mad, but in control "Okay" he said, a small grin on his lips "Let's do this"

* * *

Mai listened.

Not necessarily with her ears, but with all her senses. With them, she judged where the Kraang bots that functioned as guards were, where the rest were and what they were doing. The height of the ceiling, the width of the walls, the many lamps, the devices that were making tiny noises as they worked under the robotic hands of the Kraang.

Training, brutal and painful years of it, had been the only thing to develop such a skill as hers. It was not only her hearing that had been sharpened to hear where things are or memorize the particular sounds the things around her made, but it was also the sense of_ feeling_ the energy of others.

Like being in water and feeling others move within the substance Mai had trained years to use at her advantage.

Even though she may not sense people from miles and miles away, she could however sense a presence in a clear open space from about 45 feet away, still leaving her vulnerable to attacks from a far.

Being chained and pretending to sleep, Mai had a moment to herself to think of a strategy to escape. First she had to rid herself of her bindings, which would be hard, but if she could free her feet and move…that would make all the difference.

Then second freeing her arms and grabbing a weapon, if she was able to pull this off, she would be free. But there was one problem, the moment she moved to free herself was the moment they would notice and either killed her or wrap her into more chains.

What she needed was a distraction.

As if on cue, four teenage mutant ninja turtles bursts from the ceiling, taking down a couple of Kraang as they landed.

"Mai!" Raphael yelled, impaling a Kraang bot head onto his Sai when he saw her and then being forced to smash a couple of more Kraang.

"Mikey, go free Mai!" Leonardo ordered – he knew that this was probably something Raphael wanted to do, but Michelangelo was the quickest of them and moved around more freely then his other brothers.

Raphael scowled, but continued to fight.

"Will do!" Michelangelo smiled, jumping over Kraang and slamming them with his nun chucks as he passed them. He made it without a scratch, only to land in front of an empty space "Hey! Where'd she go?" Michelangelo asked looking around.

The others also looked while they defended themselves, worry on their faces when something came hurtling down and crashed to the ground.

Mai had seized the opportunity to free her legs and jump to break the wooden chair. Shaking the rest of her chains of off her, the room seemed to have paused to be in awe of her. Raphael felt something in him shift as he saw her eyebrows draw together as she glared at the room.

"Wow," Michelangelo murmured "That was awesome-tastic…"

Two doors slid open and more Kraang walked in. One of the Kraang that already been in the room fighting, spoke to them "Kraang, destroy the ones that are called the turtles and the one that broke free of the chains Kraang has put around the one that needed to be chained and broke free"

"Leonardo-san!" Mai yelled at the sound of their alien weapons loading and held out her left hand "May I so ungraciously ask for your sword!"

"Any time!" Leonardo yelled back, this was going to be too much for them otherwise and threw his katana to Mai who smoothly caught it by the handle while simultaneously managing to deflected a laser blast.

The other Kraang began to do the same and shoot at them as they moved to slice and dice them. Her right arm was still throbbing, which irritated her – she feared that she had to re-cast it and wasn't all too fond of the idea.

The fighting continued, Raphael busy not to interfere with Mai, he wasn't supposed to protect her anymore. Just like sensei told him – at least not if she didn't need him too.

But he was better now, the remaining bits of his rage from before gone with every Kraang he defeated.

"Leo!" Donatello suddenly yelled when there seemed no end to the amount of Kraang flooding in.

"I know!" Leonardo yelled back, they were all getting tired, even if it seemed both Mai and Raphael could go on, both he and the others weren't going to last long. Soon someone would make a mistake and then it would be all over "Everyone, I think it's time we leave this party"

"What?!" Raphael yelled, looking over his shell as his hands worked to dissect another Kraang bot "We are running away again?"

Not paying attention to his surrounding, a couple of Kraang aimed at him, their lasers loading to fire.

"RAPH WATCH OUT!" His brothers and Mai shouted.

Being the closest to him, Mai wormed her body in front of him, deflecting a couple of blasts with Leonardo's blade but getting hit anyway. Pain surged through her body, her left leg torn up by the blast and blood gushing out the wound, Mai managed to stay up by kneeling.

"Mai!" Raphael exclaimed in horror, punching the bots in front of him. He bend down next to her, she was breathing rapidly and slightly groaned in pain.

"I'm fine" She said through clenched teeth, while trying to push herself up with Leonardo's Katana, but wobbled to the side. Grabbing her by the shoulder and punching another Kraang away from them while Raphael pulled her close to him.

Another door slid open with more Kraang walking in, ready to shoot them "Uh, bro's, there are more Kraang coming!" Michelangelo shouted, rolling around and hitting Kraang as fast as he could.

Opening another ventilation-shaft, Leonardo kicked a bot in the face while yelling "Let's go, _NOW_!"

"Good idea! LETS GO!" Donatello agreed in his hysteric manner.

"Raph, take Mai! Donnie, Mikey and I'll cover for you!" Leonardo shouted, clearing a way through the Kraang with his katana.

Weakened by her wound Mai alone wouldn't be fast enough to make it to the shaft, so when Raphael gingerly pulled her left arm over his shoulders to support her, she did not complain.

"Sorry" Raphael apologized weakly as his brothers backed them up towards the shaft.

Bewildered by the sudden apology, Mai stayed silent.

When they made it there, the other three retreated with them into the shaft.

"You are going to have to climb on my back" Raphael told her while she gave Leonardo's sword back. Mai nodded and encircled his neck with her arms while he held onto her legs.

Through the pain that was ignited by the position she was in, his hands felt strangely comfortable holding her there – a feeling Mai had never felt before.

"Okay, let's move!" Leonardo shouted and they moved through the ventilation shafts smoothly and quietly.

They made it outside without any other conflict near the alley where they left April.

"Guys!" She exclaimed relieved, running towards them but stopped when she saw Mai. The raven haired girl was quietly breathing rapidly, her skin glistening in sweat and her face paler than usual.

Gingerly loosening her grip around his neck, Raphael pulled her of off his shell and sat her onto the ground in front of him.

"Mai? Mai, are you okay?" He asked worriedly holding her by her shoulders. His brothers and April gathered around them.

"I said I was fine, didn't I?" She smiled her small smile – for some stupid reason she found his concerned voice amusing.

"But you are bleeding!" April squeaked, her voice dry and eyes wide "You need to see a doctor right away!"

"Not to worry April, Donnie here can do anything" Michelangelo smiled, putting his elbow on his taller sibling.

Who was quick to refute the statement "I'm _not_ a doctor, Mikey!"

"But you always come up with medical stuff!" Michelangelo countered, moving his arms around to make his point clearer.

"There's a difference between making an antidote that's based on science then actual physical medical**_treatment_**Mikey!"

"No there isn't! Medical things are medical, dude! You should know that, D!"

"That doesn't make any sen, -!"

"Could you all shout a little longer while Mai bleeds to death?!" Raphael growled, silencing them both.

"We need to get her to a hospital" Leonardo said, putting away his swords and looking at April "April, if we bring you two to the nearest hospital do you think you can take it over from there and,-"

"Turtles" Mai sighed , interrupting them again.

She had pushed herself mentally to ignore her pain and pushed Raphael away from her who had held onto her for as long she allowed it.

"I know someone who can treat my wounds just fine, there is no need for a hospital. And this," She gestured to the wound that had still bled "Is a minor wound, it just bleeds a lot. It just needs to be dealt with before we move again"

Raphael and Leonardo might've made an argument against it, if it weren't for the fact that Mai calmly proceeded with ripping pieces of cloth from her poofy pants and wrapping them around her wounded leg.

"That someone being that old guy who also treated your arm?" Raphael asked rather skeptically.

"Yes" Mai answered, ignoring his tone and tried to stand "You may drop me off at his clinic"

Looking around to his brothers and April if they'd agree with him, Leonardo gave in when no one objected and Raphael had stubbornly turned his head away "Alright then"

Without anyone saying anything else, the turtles helped Mai get to Jim's clinic and left her with April to help her up the stairs to the clinic.

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

**UPDATE:** Now if you are reading (or rereading the story because of me taking too long to post a new chapter - _so, so_, sorry) this, it means you are reading my _rewritten_ version of the story (well, _rewritten_ is a big word, more like '**corrected**' version) One Purpose.

I am at a stage where I am going to TRY and correct all my mistakes and horrible grammar/spelling in the story, so bear with me for a little while...^^;

So I am busy _cleaning_ the story, if you will, all the way to chapter 12 - after that, I will upload chapter 13 ;)

Anyway, as always, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter so far, let me know what you think and I hope you will also enjoy the rest.

Lots of love,

Siaanna


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

**One Purpose**

* * *

Chapter 9

_"__Your arrogance has blinded your mind, making you misuse the power I gave you... so it is only befitting that the punishment you receive will _free_ you of that arrogance!"_

Mai awoke, bolting upright with hands and arms looking for something to grab onto but only finding air.

Her body was covered in cold sweat – she had apparently thrown away her sheets somewhere during the nightmare. Even though it had been a horrible memory, Mai could barely grasp what had scared her so in her dream.

It hadn't been clear what it was or what it was about.

She tried calming her body, but it took longer than she deemed necessary to reduce the shivering and rapid breathing.

There were so many things that busied her mind instead. Like what had happened only a couple of hours before.

Being brought into the clinic by April, Jim had a fit when he heard about the two girls beings mugged and Mai being beaten up by the Purple Dragons because she refused to give money to them – or so was the excuse April had come up with.

Jim would have been giddy with joy at the fact that Mai had befriended another teenager – though Mai rather not be considered as one herself – but instead was left with concern.

He went on and on about her being irresponsible and not thinking 'right' in the situation, stating she was lucky the fracture hadn't broken yet again.

April tried to argue back that Mai was rather formidable, but Mai cut the teen off and told her to go home before she could make Jim angry that she supported the idea of a blind girl fighting gangsters.

Mai remained silent throughout the old man's rant as he treated her other wounds, her mind and body tired.

Jim was a kind man, if she ever dared to think so wishfully, she would have wished she had a grandfather like him – but Mai would never think so foolishly.

She never had the experience of family that she could recall and sitting upright on the soft matrass she found it depressing she thought about those things now.

Touching the scars around her eye with her hand she wondered how long it had been. But shook the feeling of dread of off her and laid back down.

There was no use dwelling on the past.

* * *

Okay, so he turned into a creep.

Raphael told himself this after he lost the argument to the part of himself that found it completely 'o-kay' to keep watching Mai as she got into her bed and sleep. He was sitting across from their building, with a clear view on each room.

An insane part of him blamed her even, for she didn't close her own curtains – which if closed, would have prevented him from sticking around.

He was warring with himself even then, but a bigger part of him wanted to keep staring at her and overcame the part that told him he was doing something closely related to a peeping tom.

Raphael had stayed behind when the others dropped April off at her aunt's house to keep an eye on Mai in case the Kraang creeps would try and kidnap her again.

Following her and the old man as they took a taxi to their house was the less 'going to stalker vill' part.

He was grateful Mai didn't make use of her curtains or the fact she didn't bother stripping off her clothes and simply crawled in her bed, kicking her sandals to the corners of her room.

Raphael grabbed his head and turned around, sitting down and his eyes wide staring at his feet. What was he thinking?

Just staring at her sleeping face for the last hour should be classified as a form of obsessive stalker, no matter how much he wanted to keep staring.

Maybe he should talk to Master Splinter about this as well?

He sighed, he was going to go home and get his head checked by Donnie or something, he needed to feed Spike anyway…

He looked over his shoulder to glance at her one last time before leaving when she suddenly bolted upright.

Hiding himself from sight like the creep that he was, Raphael cursed himself for continuing like he was a peeping tom.

He shook the feeling of off him and watched her. She couldn't have known it was him, she was inside and he had been nothing but quiet after all.

So she had must've had a bad dream and it certainly looked that way.

Raphael saw how her face was constricted with a weird sort of shock and horror. Like when you startle someone you are very close with and they just realize it's you before they scream.

As he watched her calm herself from waking up so violently, he saw how her unshielded face turned and twisted into something he never seen before.

In comparison to how she always acted, she looked frighteningly fragile now. Her whole form seemed breakable, like a simple breath of air would blow her into the next dimension.

Though Raphael was young, he wasn't completely ignorant. Something about it made him understand Mai a bit better.

He had no clue to _who_ Mai was on the inside, but he understood now that her skills as a fighter and her tough outer exterior hid a very breakable person within.

When she went back to sleep, Raphael came to the conclusion that if he wished to reach out to Mai with his own feelings, he should first understand hers.

* * *

Though her wounds were sore the morning she awoke, it wasn't them that dragged her that day down a hill. She was tired from being so restless when she slept. It bothered her more than the fact that Jim had left to rebuy everything Mai had bought the other day.

Knowing the older man would only return later that evening, Mai set out to find the turtles – not forgetting her weaponry this time.

But what stopped her from actually going out the door and doing so was the fact she had no idea how to get to them.

Normally Mai would be able to ask directions from people and be on her way, but down in the sewers there were only rats.

She hated to admit it, but she was bound to be hopelessly lost down there. Everything was the same to her down in the sewers, she wouldn't be able to find them.

The only thing she could do was hope Raphael would show up later that evening, like he did before. Mai sighed loudly and hung her head as she sat down on the couch and letting her katana in the hockey-bag slid off her shoulder.

Her frustration tensing her shoulders as she tried to figure out what to do. Mai wasn't used to get startled, but when the doorbell rang she was up in a split second with her small blade unsheathed from her back.

Did Jim forget his keys?

On guard Mai entered the hall carefully. No, he never did, or else he'd had a spare one in his wallet. Mai frowned as she inched closer to the door, her katana silently swung back over her shoulder – the doorbell rang again.

And it would be a little too early for him to be back from shopping. It couldn't be a delivery, Jim always told her when he was supposed to receive packages. Her hand encircled the door knob and the doorbell rang for the last time.

So it wasn't Jim or anyone from a delivery company, Mai could only conclude that it had to be the enemy and posed to strike.

She swung the door open that smacked loudly against the wall knocking over a side table and lunged forward, knife ready to cut the enemies throat.

"WAIT!" April shrieked the moment the door opened, the sharp edge of the blade stopping only a millimeter from connecting to her skin.

"April O'neil" Mai greeted her grimly, a scowl on her face and pulling her weapon from the girl's neck and sheathing it.

"Uhm, wow, remind me to never sneak up on you" April remarked eyes wide with slight fear from the sudden 'attack'.

"What are you doing here?" Pausing before she moved aside as to invite the girl in, Mai cocked a brow "And how did you find this place?"

"It wasn't so hard" April informed Mai as she walked inside "Mr. Hudson's home address can be found in any phonebook, along with several others, but he is the only one who could afford a place like this" April explained with a smile of satisfaction her face and looking around.

"I understand" Mai closed the door behind the redhead and guided them towards the living room, gesturing for April to sit down.

Inspecting the older girl from head to toe, April was relieved to see she wasn't as wounded as she feared Mai would be "But the reason I came was to see if you were alright"

"I understand" Mai repeated, kicking herself mentally for making April worry about her wellbeing while she was supposed to be the stronger one "My deepest apologies for making you waste your time worrying about me, April-san" Mai bowed.

"Don't be ridiculous, you saved my life! It's only natural I worry" April quickly retorted, hands up defensively.

Mai straightened, not feeling any less ashamed and April knowing it. The two stood there in silence for a moment before Mai remembered.

"it is actually quite fortunate for you to come by, April-san" Mai said, her voice brightening up.

April blinked in surprise, she was sure that the two have a long awkward moment of silence waiting for them "huh? How's that?"

Mai bowed, going down on one knee this time "I have to request a favor, could you by any chance guide me to the Turtles?"

Again, April felt weirded out and surprised "ah…uhm…Sure? But why don't you go there yourself?"

Mai stayed as she was and blushed, not really knowing how to put this without admitting her weakness.

Thankfully, April was a bright girl "Oh! I'm _so _sorry!" she gasped shooting up "I didn't mean to-! It's just I keep forgetting that you are-! I mean, uh,-! That you can't see! And that's good, right? I mean,-!"

During April's blabbering Mai straightened up and put her hand on April's shoulder, her small smile in place "It's okay, I understand"

Mai's firm hand on April's shoulder calmed her and made her feel accepted, at home - the feeling similar to whenever her dad did when she needed comfort or support.

April smiled "Thanks"

"Not a problem" Mai smiled back.

* * *

Arriving at the entrance of the turtles lair, Mai hadn't expected much of a welcome for the trouble she caused them. But the people in this city kept surprising her with their kindness.

It was still rather early in the morning for the turtles to be active on a Sunday, so the living room area was deserted.

"Hello? Anyone home?" April called out as they walked down the steps. There was some activity coming from the nearby rooms, but Mai felt extremely rude for entering their home without permission and was about to tell April so, when a head popped from the kitchen through the Noren.

"Hey, morning April, you're early, I don't think Master Splinter's,-" Michelangelo greeted April when he saw Mai and dropped the bowl with eggs he was going to use to make breakfast "MAI!"

Mai waved lamely at him and greeted him a bit awkwardly "Ohayō, Michelangelo-san…sorry for intrude,-"

"Huh? Mikey, who's – Oh, hey April," Donatello's figure appeared between the doors of his lab/garage with his protection mask on and removing it so he could see better "I,- _we_ weren't expecti,-uh…Mai?"

Mai turned her body to greet him a good morning as well, when two others came walking into the living room. Leonardo and Master Splinter both looked surprised as they saw Mai standing next April.

"Hi, guys, sorry for coming a bit earlier than usual" April smiled and walked further into the lair, unknowingly leaving Mai to stand uncomfortably half way into the lair.

"That is quite alright April" Splinter greeted her and then turned his attention to the raven haired girl "I am glad to see you are doing well, Mai. Leonardo had just told me you all had a bad encounter with the Kraang last night"

Relaxing a bit at the welcoming tone, Mai nodded "I am ashamed to admit I wasn't prepared to encounter a fight yesterday"

"Sometimes things happen that we can't control, no matter how strong we are" Leonardo said like he was years older "So its fine, we are all just happy everything turned out okay"

"Besides," April added "You at least were able to fight them off long enough for me to get away with only your bare hands!"

Mai opened her mouth to argue back when out of nowhere she received a rather tight hug from Michelangelo "I'm so glad you are alright dude!" He let go of her all of a sudden and rethought what he was saying for a moment "I mean, girl-dude – I need to think a good nickname for you, but don't worry, the Mikester is great at thinking up names!"

Not sure how to react to that, Mai turned her attention to the others "Either way, I am also very sorry for intruding like this" She apologized bowing her head slightly.

"There's no need for you to apologize, you are welcome to come by anytime" Splinter smiled.

"That is very kind of you" Mai said and straightened "But I do feel like I have disturbed you by coming over so suddenly"

"That's okay, we were pretty much awake anyways, so don't worry about that" Donatello replied, walking in and standing as close to April as he dared, who glanced over at him smiled.

"Yeah, besides," Michelangelo continued enthusiastically "The only one really sleeping in is Raphael, so don't worry about a thing"

"O..kay?" Mai replied a bit confused. Shouldn't they wake him them, sleeping in was somewhat sloppy.

"Anyways, I'm going to make more breakfast, so you can have breakfast with us!" and the energetic turtle disappeared again.

She turned her head towards the others and pointed into the direction where Michelangelo had skipped away "Is he always…so _full_ of energy in the morning?" She questioned as politely as she could.

"Not always" Leonardo chuckled "But he can cook though"

April walked over to Master Splinter to ask about their training session later that day, Donatello remembered something he had busied himself with for a couple of days now "Oh, uhm…Mai?"

"Yes, Donatello-san?" She replied relieved. She didn't know how to place herself at the moment and was more than happy to start a conversation.

Leonardo approached them as well, he wasn't planning on training until after lunch anyway and was curious what Donatello wanted from Mai.

Happy with her open response, he continued "Well, I was wondering, since you are blind have you ever learned to work with Braille?"

Mai was surprised he had to ask, but answered politely anyway "Yes I have"

"What's that?" Leonardo asked, looking at his tallest sibling.

Always happy to explain, Donatello used his hands while he did so "_Braille_ is based on a tactile military code from the 19th century and was called _night writing_ and developed by Charles Barbier in response to Napole,-"

When both Mai and Leonardo were cocking eyebrows, Donatello slumped his shoulder, cutting himself off and gave the two a deadpan before he shortened the long history lesson to a singular sentence "Braille is a tactile writing system used by the blind and the visually impaired to _read_ and _write_ with, Le-o"

Leonardo grinned at his brother "Now that is something everyone understands"

Donatello rolled his eyes.

"Uhm, but why do you ask, Donatello-san?" Mai asked, not really sure where this was going.

"Well, if you would follow me, I have cooked something up that just might make things easier for all of us" Donatello said both mysteriously and smugly.

Mai turned her head towards Leonardo as if to glance at him and raised her brows questioningly. He shrugged at her knowing she would sense the gesture and followed his brother into the garage/lab.

Sighing, Mai went along with it for now.

Entering the wide space filled with unknown junk, Mai walked over where the two turtles were. Donatello was rampaging through a couple of drawers before he found it "ah, here we go" He grinned and turned.

"A t-phone, Donnie?" Leonardo questioned disappointed.

"What's that? Is it like a cellphone?" Mai asked.

Leonardo replied faster than his brother could who glared at him while spoke "Yeah, sort of, only Donnie made them himself"

Not giving into his irritation, Donatello regained his smugness and held the turtle shell-shaped phone up high "Yes, but this one is _speci-al_" Activating the phone, he handed it over to Mai "Okay, now if you would place your finger gently on the screen…" At that moment Mai hadn't the faintest of ideas of where this was going.

The moment she complied Donatello got his own t-phone and texted the one Mai was holding. The screen underneath her fingers changed and she read the letters popping up [Does it work?].

"Yes" She answered smiling, reading that the other buttons on the phone "This is…_amazing_, how did you…?"

Grinning widely Donatello explained happily "Well, I was looking through a couple of junkyards for some electronic components and stumbled upon that nano glass. Normally Braille is traditionally written with embossed paper, but there are computer screens and other electronic supports thanks to refreshable braille displays that were made somewhere in 193,-"

They both simply gave him that look again.

"BASED _ON_ those displays, I managed to shrink down their Braille system to a t-phone friendly size with a nona-tech touchscreen"

"Oh" Both Mai and Leonardo said.

Donatello sighed deeply, wondering why he never learned that they would never get what he was saying "Anyway, now we can call you or you us, or text, whenever its necessary"

"That's awesome, Donnie, good work" Leonardo complimented, smiling brightly.

Mai held the device in her hand, not sure what to say really. She was torn between simply accepting such a generous and thoughtful gift and giving it back because she was neither worthy of it and would never need it.

Her gratitude and the fact that Donatello must've worked unbelievable hard on it won over her pride.

"Mai?" Leonardo questioned when she didn't say anything.

"Hm? Oh, sorry, it's just, I never would…" She got completely tongue tight "Thanks…thank you very much"

Donatello had been worried for a second, but was relieved and grinning widely with his brother when she accepted the t-phone "Not a problem, if there are any problems with it or it breaks, just let me look at it. We warriors of ancient Japanese times should look at for each other ya know?"

A part of her was reluctant, but she nodded and smiled "Yeah"

"Sensei! Bro's! April! Onee-chan! BREAKFASTS RE-ADAYY!" Michelangelo shouted throughout the lair.

They all simply looked in the direction of the living room.

"Who on earth is he calling big sister?" Leonardo questioned. They all seemed to look at each other when both Leonardo and Donatello face palmed themselves at the stupidity that was their sibling.

Donatello groaned "Oh jeez. Forgive him Mai, he isn't really the brightest of the bunch"

Mai softly snickered, surprising them "Nah, its fine. I rather have him call me that then refer to me as a 'bro' or 'dude'"

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

**UPDATE:** Now if you are reading (or rereading the story because of me taking too long to post a new chapter - _so, so_, sorry) this, it means you are reading my _rewritten_ version of the story (well, _rewritten_ is a big word, more like '**corrected**' version) One Purpose.

I am at a stage where I am going to TRY and correct all my mistakes and horrible grammar/spelling in the story, so bear with me for a little while...^^;

So I am busy _cleaning_ the story, if you will, all the way to chapter 12 - after that, I will upload chapter 13 ;)

Anyway, as always, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter so far, let me know what you think and I hope you will also enjoy the rest.

Lots of love,

Siaanna


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

**One Purpose**

* * *

Chapter 10

In one of the bedrooms in the lair, lay a single turtle on his belly snoring loudly. Raphael had been up all night thinking about her, about what he was going to ask her once he saw her the day after but not coming up with anything concrete.

So after staying awake until the very early hours of morning, the teenager slept deeply, his dreams incoherent and vague like that of most people.

"RAPH! BREAKFASTS RE-ADY!" Michelangelo called. His younger brother knocked on his door when there was no reply and Raphael rolled onto his back, eyes fluttering but not waking up.

The knocking sound persisted a moment more, but then stopped. The sleeping turtle would vaguely remember his door opening and closing once he woke up later.

* * *

Raphael woke up hours later from the roar of his stomach and groaned. He opened a single eye to see Spike quietly chewing on a couple of leafs that Raphael had given him hours before he fell asleep.

Raphael grumbled, sitting up and rubbed his tired eyes.

He really should go to bed much earlier from now on, but he knew that he probably wouldn't, not when he had so much to figure out at the moment.

The sullen teen stood up in one go, stretching his body and then letting himself fall onto his hands to do a few push-ups – he usually did this in the morning to wake up the muscles in his body without a single thought put into it.

It was all routine.

Just as mindlessly, he put on his mask and other gear before petting Spike on the head and mumbling about seeing him later and sauntering out of his room.

Dragging his feet over the floor towards the living room, walking around like a zombie, he was still waking up when he first heard them.

His brain vaguely registered the noise as voices, but couldn't make them click. His stomach growled angrily at him for taking his sweet time getting to the kitchen.

"Oh! Oh! Do_ it_ again!" Michelangelo exclaimed energetically when Raphael came shuffling in.

Raphael had the strange sensation of cold water splashing over him, waking him up completely as he saw her sitting there.

"Alright" Mai smiled, Michelangelo's pupil's dilating while she did it a second time.

Breathing in through her nose real quick, the flaps of her nostril closed simultaneously for a few seconds.

Blinking like an owl, Raphael shook his head and did a retake of the living room.

Leonardo was sitting in front of the TV, watching space-heroes as usual, his little brother however was sitting way too closely next to _Mai_.

Leonardo noticed him first, glancing over his shoulder he greeted his hotheaded brother before looking back to the screen "Oh, hey Raph"

Mai also noticed him "Ohay- oh, it's no longer morning is it? Hello Raphael-san" She greeted him politely with an amused little smile.

Instead of being able to greet her properly, Raphael's stomach did all the talking – it roared loudly, causing him to fold his large arms around his belly and turn to hide his blush in embarrassment.

"If you're hungry there's leftover in the fridge" Michelangelo informed him absently, his eyes locked on Mai's nose "Onee, that's so FREA~KY!" and then leaned closely to her "**_doitagain!_**"

Onee? As in Onee-_chan_? As in BIG sister? What the shell?!

Raphael's brain was an incoherent mush that tried to untangle itself to gain enough control to figure out what to do.

"Are you alright?" Mai questioned, frowning worriedly in his direction and ignoring Michelangelo who had been more or less pestering her since the moment she was welcomed into their home.

Leonardo who had paid little attention after greeting his brother, now completely tore his eyes from the TV screen to glance over his shoulder at Raphael.

He took in the situation and chuckled "Nah, he's fine, you probably just freaked him out with that nose trick of yours"

Raphael's face heat up, steam seeming to float above his head and turned to shout to Leonardo "NO she didn't! Shut up,_ LE-_O!"

Michelangelo tried to muffle his laughter at the embarrassed reaction his temperamental brother gave, as said brother stomped off to the kitchen, but burst into laughter anyway.

Mai seemed to look from Michelangelo to Leonardo and furrowed her brows "Did I just miss something?" She inquired.

Hearing the worry and confusion in her voice, Leonardo stopped chuckling to reassure her "No, it's nothing, Mai, really"

"Then why were you two laughing?" She demanded sternly, like a school teacher wanting to know which of her students was the real bully who started the fight.

Leonardo and Michelangelo glanced at each other and stayed silent. Huffing, Mai got up and walked over to where she remember the kitchen was supposed to be.

Raphael had just angrily slammed the fridge door shut when she walked in. Not noticing Mai, he continued to pour milk over his cereal and sat down whilst muttering angrily under his breath all sorts of things.

When he stabbed his spoon almost through the bowl, Mai approached him cautiously "Hi"

Raphael almost swallowed his spoon and coughed while Mai sat down on the other side of the table.

Eyes wide, Raphael laughed awkwardly "Oh, hey Mai, good morning" He choked out – he had a hard time calming his nerves, he kept reminding himself that he had been watching her sleep and fearing she knew.

Mai had to control every part of herself to_ not_ correct him on his greeting. A wide smile appeared on her lips from the effort of restraining herself.

The kitchen filled with awkward silence as Raphael tried to remind himself she didn't know about him watching her sleep.

"Are you alright?" Mai asked, the silence creeping up on her as much as it did on him "You were sleeping in, or so I was told by your brothers"

"Uh…yeah, I'm fine" Raphael replied. It dawned on him that she was_ here_, in their home and a question popped up, relaxing him "So…what are you doing here?"

Mai didn't know how to answer him for some reason. What _was _she doing here? Why did she come to seek them out for?

She knew why…but would she dare ask him? Would she end it so soon?

Scared he offended her with his question with how torn she looked, Raphael quickly tried to take back his question "I mean, not _what_ are you doing here - because you are welcome here and all - but more like _how_ did you get here exactly? Did you remember it from the last time? Because I know you are smart like that and,-" He quickly made himself shut up by putting a spoon full of cereal in his mouth.

Dear lord, he was beginning to sound like Donnie.

Her throat felt tight, but Mai smiled her small smile at him, amused by how he seemed to fall over his own words while he spoke "No, I have to admit I was unable to remember how to come to your home, thankfully April came by this morning to see if I was 'okay', so I was able to tag along with her"

Raphael swallowed "April's here?" He questioned, the awkwardness ebbing away a bit.

"Yes, though she is currently training with Master Splinter" Mai answered absently, still feeling the dread underneath the surface – just like when she woke up yesterday "Donatello-san has gone off to a 'secret project of his'" She added, in case he also wanted to know.

Raphael grinned a little "Ah, so you have been stuck with Lame-o-nardo en Mikey huh?"

"Lame-o-nardo?" Mai frowned and shook her head, smiling "You shouldn't call your older brother names. He's a nice guy"

"True, there's a reason why he's the leader and all that" Raphael shrugged and continued to eat. He then smiled "though I would be better at it"

Mai cocked an eyebrow at him, contemplating whether or not she wanted to bite into that discussion just yet.

Raphael suddenly felt an opportunity rise. He started looking from his bowl to Mai and back again as the spoon spun round and round again in the bowl.

"Ah…Mai, you know, if you don't have anything else to do…if you want we could…uh..ah…" Raphael started, but was unable to finish. Was he going to ask her out on a date? Would she say yes?

"Hmmm?" Mai raised her brows curiously.

"If you want we could go…on a…uh…go back and forth between the liar and the surface until you memorize the way down here, in case anything happens?" He cursed himself for being a coward, for chickening out at the last second and bit down hard on his spoon when he continued to eat.

"Oh, that sounds like a good idea, though I did get this from Donatello-san," She showed him her custom made t-phone and he, again, almost choked on his cereal "which is handy in case of an emergency when I need you to come to me, but when anything happens here I can't come to help directly" Mai smiled, forgetting her feeling of dread completely to the prospect of doing something productive.

* * *

After Raphael finished eating, the two of them went off into the sewer. Michelangelo tried to come with them, but after getting thrown into the water by Raphael, he was easily dealt with.

"Wasn't that a bit harsh?" Mai questioned him when they walked out.

Raphael shrugged and grinned "Nah, he is used to whole lot worse than that"

For some reason she found that amusing, not the thought of Michelangelo getting bullied by his brother, but more the way Raphael spoke about it.

Mai walked over to the wall and put her hand onto the cold damp bricks as they started to walk, feeling every crack and bump, burning them into her memory.

Just like the other things her senses picked up on. Smell, sound, in what direction the air moved to.

"So Mai, I have been meaning to ask" Raphael began while they followed the track down to the usual manhole they used.

Raphael had decided he would try and act more like himself, no more cowardice. So when Mai seemed to look at him sideways with a guarded look on her face, he simply continued "How did you actually manage to travel from Japan to America?"

Mai's shoulders relaxed, she was afraid he was going to ask something much more personal than that and smiled at her own idiocy. What did she fear for any way?

"By boat, I paid a man to get me on a large cargo ship to America. It wasn't that hard"

Raphael frowned "Sorry, but that doesn't sound too smart. What if he just took your money and called the police?"

"Well apparently he didn't" Mai grinned sideways at him, but then returned her attention up ahead, a serious look settled on her face "There are still people out there in the world who uphold Tradition and Honor"

"Alright" Raphael said, hearing that she wouldn't go further on that subject "So where did you get that much money then?"

"What do you mean 'that much money'?" Mai retorted, raising an eyebrow.

Raphael shrugged and continued to walk casually "Well, if you are gonna bribe or pay someone to either shut them up or help you in doing something illegal, then I figure you better have a lot of cash on you to pull something like that off"

Mai stopped walking and laughed.

"What?" Raphael asked, slightly annoyed.

"Nothing, nothing" Mai waved, still smiling brightly "I just didn't think you'd come up with something like that"

He glared at her "I'm not stupid, I know how the world works…" Raphael grumbled unsure whether or not he was right about her situation.

Mai looked at him, or more in his general direction, a gently smile on her lips "I'm not suggesting you are dumb, Raphael-san. Perhaps you do know how _the _world works, maybe even better than I do," Mai paused for a moment "but not _my_ world"

With that she reminded him of how little he still knew about her and what he set as his own personal goal.

"Then tell me how _your_ world works" Raphael retorted when they started walking again.

Mai mused over that for a moment. The silence following dragged on for a while as they walked, making Raphael feel uncomfortable.

She had to stop walking, a slight crease between her brows as her blind gaze looked over her glasses at him.

If anything, Raphael had the idea she actually was _looking_ at him with a calculating gaze – which of course was impossible, she didn't actually see him…right?

Without any warning Mai continued to walk again, she made her decision "The reason why that man helped me, was not because of the money, even if I didn't have any, he was_ bound_ by Honor to help me"

"Then why did you pay him?" Raphael asked, picking up his stride to walk beside her and to lead the way.

"Because I felt like that was the Honorable thing to do, to pay him for his troubles"

"Honor seems to be the magic word here" Raphael smiled, trying to lift the mood a little. She had been sounding and looking so serious.

He had the pleasure to see it work, her small smile returned "That it is"

They kept on walking, a more comfortable silence falling over them. Raphael was thankful she couldn't see him sneaking glances at her other hand dangling very closely next to his.

But next to that his thoughts centered around her and her strict code of Honor. He already had a taste of it in the very beginning, it had caused their first fight.

He knew it was something important, Master Splinter talked about it a lot too, but up until now he never really paid much attention to it. Namely because their foes didn't give two shells about Honor and Honor didn't help you win fights.

To him, such things as Honor and what not, only stood in the way of punching the bad guys out. Her hand moved upward, to push her sunglasses up and hide her ghost looking white eyes. Making his thoughts go to the scars on her eyes.

She had many other scars, and like most of them, they told the stories of her battles and training, but her eyes were damaged differently – with precision so that they didn't deform.

"Are we almost there yet?" Mai asked, the route April used seemed shorter.

Raphael shook himself out of his trans and looked around, seeing they were only a few steps away "Yeah, almost"

"Okay"

Raphael looked at Mai again and then when they were there he stopped walking "Hey Mai, I know this must be a really personal question…but what happened to your eyes?"

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

**UPDATE:** Now if you are reading (or rereading the story because of me taking too long to post a new chapter - _so, so_, sorry) this, it means you are reading my _rewritten_ version of the story (well, _rewritten_ is a big word, more like '**corrected**' version) One Purpose.

I am at a stage where I am going to TRY and correct all my mistakes and horrible grammar/spelling in the story, so bear with me for a little while...^^;

So I am busy _cleaning_ the story, if you will, all the way to chapter 12 - after that, I will upload chapter 13 ;)

Anyway, as always, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter so far, let me know what you think and I hope you will also enjoy the rest.

Lots of love,

Siaanna


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

**One Purpose**

* * *

Chapter 11

They stared at each other, or at least, Raphael was waiting in nervous anticipation. He could feel that he had just asked something that might've crossed an invisible line, but that gave him more reason to want to know about it.

Mai's jaw was clenched tightly, she didn't really want to talk about it…ever since she came to this country – _no_ – ever since she met _them_, her whole mission had been sidetracked.

Talking about things that were related to that, only reminded her of her Duty and her Honor – and how she was failing to uphold them both.

And that failure would only mean one thing.

Raphael couldn't take it anymore, she was slowly giving him that same expression she had when he watched her through the window "I'm sorry if talking about it is…uh…painful?"

"…it's okay," Mai reassured him, unclenching her jaw, but not feeling that reinsurance herself "I just…I…" She sighed, her mind reeling.

Her mind staggered to find the right response and sat down on a large sewage pipe against the wall "It's not really a story that people would like to hear"

"I don't mind, but I don't want to force it out of you either" Raphael sat down next to her, not sure what to do or what to say.

Clearly his question had upset her, or at least the memory of how she lost her eyesight did "You know, Master Splinter always said that sometimes we need to talk about our problems so others can help solve them…or something like that"

Mai smiled a sad smile.

No matter how much she would talk about her eyes, she would always be blind, no matter how much she talked about her duty and honor, no one could save her from it.

But the gesture was kind and sort of sweet for a hotheaded guy like him "You really are a sensitive guy, huh, Raphael-san?" She chuckled quietly.

"I'm not sensitive!" Raphael immediately denied, which only confirmed it from her point of view. If he wasn't sensitive, such a comment wouldn't have affected him that much.

Her smile stayed "I didn't mean to offend you, I'm sorry"

Raphael grumbled, a slight dust of pink on his cheeks. He crossed his arms over his chest, looking at the train tracks and the small puddle of water "It's fine, I know I'm a hothead"

"That's okay, you make me a hothead too" Mai's smile grew in amusement when she realized that to be true – ever since she met him she experienced real flares of irritation and anger. Emotions she hadn't felt in a_ long_ time. Not to mention many other emotions.

Raphael stared at her, his mouth hanging open – he would've been mad, he should've been mad, by anyone blaming him for their own temper.

But she said it in a way that it seemed like she enjoyed that about him, which let his heartbeat unevenly again.

Mai pulled her legs up and curled her arms around them, hugging them closer. Faint light was falling onto her raven hair and fair and rough looking skin. She licked her pink lips and sighed deeply.

Raphael took all of this in as if he was seeing it all in slow motion, faint music seemed to play in the back of his head and all he could think of was kissing her.

And then Mai took off her sunglasses and looked at him with her white scarred eyes – the sensation feeling like she slapped him out of his trans.

"A long, long time ago, I challenged my Master and he taught me a lesson about how weak I was by doing _this_" She pointed at her eyes and she put her glasses back on. She could literally _feel_ his reaction sitting so close next to him.

Raphael's mind had literally stopped functioning for a couple of seconds, he simply couldn't wrap his mind around the idea of her Master...

His jaw clamped shut with anger and he simply kept staring ahead while Mai continued.

"When I just started out as my Master's pupil, I was very unwilling and rebellious, I wanted to kill him so bad…" Mai leaned her head back against the brick wall behind her and sighed almost longingly "He was a very cruel man"

Raphael couldn't help himself "I'm glad the Shredder shred him, because if he hadn't I would go there now and do it" He growled furiously.

"Yeah, I'm glad he's gone too" Mai smiled.

Raphael's head snapped around to stare at her in surprise. He hadn't thought she would agree with him "How did you end up with such a monster anyway?"

Mai's smile vanished and her voice was quiet while she spoke "When I was really young, a time I barely remember, my village got caught up in what news reporters and the fire departments reported as a devastating forest fire"

Raphael frowned "That wasn't true?"

Mai shook her head "No. To this day I don't know why he set my village a blaze, but when he did, it killed everyone. Those who didn't get caught by the flames were easily struck down by his blade. I would have been killed too, if he hadn't killed my father first…" She smiled at the end, though it didn't hold joy or sadness, just an emptiness he would never understand.

Listening to her, Raphael felt a chill go down his spine as he realized how frail this tough looking girl actually was.

"But because he killed my father first, I took out a blade - back then I thought it to be strong enough to be called a sword," She snorted softly at the memory before continuing "though it was nothing more than a regular kitchen knife. I managed to stick it into his lower leg, but not deep enough to actually mortal wound him or slow him down. He admired my bravery, even though I just lost my father, my family and my entire village, he found in me a pupil worthy of his teachings and took me with him before the fire swallowed up the last of my village whole"

She had answered him and didn't continue.

After a moment of simply staring at her, Raphael shouted "Why on earth would you _want_ to avenge his death?!"

This she had expected, of course he would remember, where she in the beginning told him and his family that she came to this city to take vengeance upon the Shredder.

Mai calmly answered him "I told you, I _have_ to. In order to restore my Honor as a samurai, I _must_ avenge my Master"

Raphael got to his feet in a flash, balling his fists as he yelled at her "To hell with that! If you go up against the Shredder you'd be risking your _life_ for a guy who killed your family, your ENTIRE village and took away your ability friggin' _see!_ How could you still _want_ to avenge him after all that?!"

"Like I said, I don't _want_ to avenge him" Mai responded, her voice empty of any emotion - just like in the beginning when she talked about avenging her Master to restore her Honor her voice sounded indifferent about the subject, like she didn't care "But I have to, I simply do not have a choice in the matter"

Raphael exploded "OF COURSE YOU DO! There is no one forcing you to avenge your Master!"

"Raphael-san" Mai said sternly, standing up "I know you belief that to be true. But in my world, losing one's Honor is the same thing as losing your right to live…" Mai sighed and seemed to gaze at the floor "…if I do NOT avenge my master to restore my Honor as a Samurai…that means" She took a deep breath "_death_ in my world"

She seemed to be slapping him a lot emotionally and mentally as of late. Maybe not on purpose, but it still did shake him out of his shell every time he discovered something new about her and this seemed to be her holy grail.

Her core.

And finding this out brought with it a startling realization "So you are going to die either way…"

Mai didn't say a word.

She felt she had said enough already, she never meant for them to know…for him to know. This wasn't something that fit in his world and she knew that from the very beginning.

"Because that is going to happen when you face the Shredder on your own" He bit out, his angry rolling over him like a wave.

Mai didn't say anything. Yes, she would die facing the Shredder, she knew he was stronger than her and more experienced.

But she had to try, at least give it a shot, for this was her only way out. If by chance she would win the battle, she could finally live her life the way she wanted to.

"No" Raphael said very firmly, grabbing her by her shoulder and shaking her "Are you insane!? I will not let you kill yourself! You hear me?! I won't let you,-"

"You won't let me?" Mai questioned him frowning "I _appreciate_ your concern, I really do Raphael-san, but there's nothing you can do to stop me from fulfilling my duty"

He didn't have a response for that, not immediately, which led to a tension filled moment of silence. Until he realized something that sprung up in his mind like a light-bulb being flicked on and a snarky remark followed "Oh _really_? Well, go on then, go fight the Shredder RIGHT _now_" He crossed his arms and had the satisfaction of her face scrunching up "Oh wait, you don't know where his secret hide-out is, now do you? What. ."

"You have to tell me" Mai demanded.

Raphael moved his face closer to hers "No, I don't _have_ to do anything. And my brothers won't either after I tell them about all this"

His words seemed to ripple through her, almost making her snap back at him and punch him until he told her. Somehow he had managed to hurt her, because she couldn't understand why he was so determined to make her kill herself.

Instead she took a deep calming breath "It doesn't matter then, either way, I am going to find the Shredder and fight him, with or without your help" She declared bitterly and then added just to hurt him a back "At least I know not to trust _you_ any more with my secrets"

She pushed past him with her shoulder.

Raphael watched her walk back in the direction of the lair, hand on the wall.

He stomped his foot on the ground as he yelled after her "Well! Then you shouldn't have trusted me in the first place!" Which was one of the dumbest things he had ever yelled at anybody before.

* * *

They hadn't said a word to each other going back to the lair. Walking back, Raphael made sure to stay a few feet away from her to avoid conversation.

He was still fuming, both at her as at himself.

He was internally at war, trying to decide whether or not to tell his family about Mai's plan to get herself killed.

Raphael knew that she told him all of it because she apparently trusted him enough to keep his mouth shut, which was stupid on her part.

Who on this earth would NOT tell other people to help stop her from killing herself? Was she totally nuts?

He had every reason to tell them, not only out of his own selfish wish to keep her breathing so they could be together, but because it was the _right_ thing to do.

He glanced at Mai.

Was it?

Mai entered the lair, her facial expression blank while she walked over to the couch and sat down as she was greeted by Michelangelo and Leonardo who were playing on the pinball machine.

"Hey, Mai-Onee!" Michelangelo exclaimed when he saw her and jumped over to the couch to sit down next to her "Finally! Let's go do some cool amazing stuff!"

Mai smiled a little at his enthusiasm "Sure, Michelangelo-san"

Leonardo stared at her as Raphael walked in, sensing something was off. When he looked at his brother who had walked in with his head hanging low and hands clutched into fists, he knew that they might've gotten into a fight again.

He would've asked what was up, if Master Splinter hadn't been waiting for Raphael and appeared next to him.

Raphael jumped to a side, startled as his father said rather sternly "May I speak with you, my son"

It wasn't a question.

Raphael sauntered after his father, taking one last look at Mai before they entered the dojo – she paid him no mind "As if this day couldn't get any worse" He grumbled under his breath.

"Hmm?" Master Splinter questioned, looking over his shoulder "What was that?"

"N-nothing, sensei!" Raphael replied wide-eyed.

Master Splinter regarded him for a second before coming to a standstill in front of the tree and turning around. As usual, his hands were behind his back and said nothing.

Raphael kept standing where he was as Master Splinter kept silent. Raphael looked around him to see no one else was with them.

"Ah, sorry sensei, why am,-" Raphael started to ask when Master Splinter cut him off.

"_Patience_" Master Splinter demanded sternly and again said nothing.  
Raphael straightened nervously and waited.

And waited.

…

…

…

If this had to be some new form of torture, Master Splinter was succeeding in doing so.

After what felt like an hour had passed, Raphael tried again.

"Excuse me, Master Splinter, but,-"

"Patience" Splinter repeated making Raphael straighten up again. But this time, Master Splinter walked a little around him while he spoke "When a situation occurs in which our enemies take hostages, rash actions can lead to devastating consequences. Not necessarily to ourselves, but to those we try to rescue from those enemies" Master Splinter stood in front of him again, a terrifying scowl on his face.

Raphael had no idea what he was talking about, or at least, up until then. All his mind was thinking about was what a waste of time this was.

He needed to tell Master Splinter and his brothers about Mai and how they were supposed to stop her from killing herself when all of a sudden the message came through "_Ooooh_…you are talking about what happened with the Kraang, right sensei? Look I understand that what I did was stupid, but that's not what is important right now,-"

"Not important?" His father repeated angrily, walking over to him whilst saying "Entering an enemy base without thinking, putting your own life at risk and that of Michelangelo by dragging him with you is not _important_? Have you completely forgotten your training?"

"They kidnapped _Mai_, Master Splinter!" Raphael fumed "If they had gotten April too, Donnie would've done the same thing!"

"But it didn't" His father pointed out "Things that 'could've been' are not the things I worry about, but the things that 'have been' is what worries me. We discussed this the last time, your fondness of this girl is bringing not only your own life in danger, but also that of your brothers"

Raphael clenched his jaw before he yelled something he would regret.

Master Splinter sighed and put his hands on his sons shoulders "I cannot forbid you from caring about Mai" Raphael looked up at his father, seeing the understanding in his eyes "But that doesn't mean I will allow this destructive behavior to go unpunished"

"Hai, sensei" Raphael said giving up.

Master Splinter let go of his shoulders and turned his back on Raphael, appearing to be in thought.

"Wait here" Master Splinter told him and disappeared from the dojo.

Raphael groaned.

He will probably be grounded for a month with extra training in patience and what not. Why did caring about someone_ suck_ this much?

Raphael was so angry and conflicted. He just wanted to punch her so bad, maybe just fighting with the dummy would help if he imagined her stupid beautiful face on it.

He was kicking and flipping through the dojo to get his energy out when suddenly Michelangelo came walking in with an indecipherable grin on his face of pure joy.

"What are you so happy about?" Raphael grumbled while Michelangelo sat down on the side when the answer came walking in, followed by the rest of his family.

Master Splinter brought in a very serious looking Mai, who was holding a Bokken in her hand.

"_Duuuuude_, this is going to be so awesome!" Michelangelo whispered excitedly when Leonardo and Donatello came sitting on either side of him – the both of them smiling just as brightly.

April sat down next to Donatello, looking a little confused as Raphael felt the blood rushing from his face.

Master Splinter stood in front of him and spoke "Raphael, this will be your lesson for the time being" he gestured to Mai who was trying out the Bokken a little with lighting fast moves "Defeat Mai"

Oh crud.

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

**UPDATE:** Now if you are reading (or rereading the story because of me taking too long to post a new chapter - _so, so_, sorry) this, it means you are reading my _rewritten_ version of the story (well, _rewritten_ is a big word, more like '**corrected**' version) One Purpose.

I am at a stage where I am going to TRY and correct all my mistakes and horrible grammar/spelling in the story, so bear with me for a little while...^^;

So I am busy _cleaning_ the story, if you will, all the way to chapter 12 - after that, I will upload chapter 13 ;)

Anyway, as always, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter so far, let me know what you think and I hope you will also enjoy the rest.

Lots of love,

Siaanna


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

**One Purpose**

* * *

Chapter 12

The smooth wooden handle rested steadily in her left hand. Though her right arm hadn't broken again the day before, Mai still knew that the danger of that happening this time was real.

Not to mention her leg – even though her leg wasn't wounded badly enough, it could be a source of weakness to be exploited.

Mai adjusted herself to avoid any further damage from happening.

Raphael swallowed quietly as the two of them went to stand in the center of the dojo. He was one of the best fighters on the team which often gave him the overconfidence to knock some heads, but he knew this was a totally different ball game.

The way Mai was prepping herself, the seriousness of how she did it, gave him enough sense to realize he would get his shell handed to him if he wasn't careful enough…in front of everyone.

He shook his head and concentrated, drawing it from where he always drew his bravery from – his anger.

It was easy, getting mad at her, especially with all that had transpired, he was suddenly actually glad he could get this chance to knock some sense in to _her_.

Master Splinter sat down on the other side, across from the other teens, with his hands on his knees. Michelangelo tried to convince Donatello to start a bet, while both Leonardo and April, who also found amusement in this event, saw this as a learning opportunity.

Especially Leonardo, since he also fought with swords made extra sure he would memorize all of Mai's moves to copy them later.

He might even ask to also be allowed to spar with her after this match.

Raphael shook off the last of his nerves and twisted his Sai in his hands to take his usual starting pose.

The room fell completely silent.

Mai on the other hand stood sideways, the right side of her body towards him, holding the Bokken backwards in her left hand.

Her stance didn't give of the vibe of someone about to fight, with her head hanging slightly she looked more in thought than anything else.

Raphael narrowed his eyes, with the way she was holding the Bokken suggested she would probably try and attack him by making a long swoop towards him, so it would hit him extra hard.

He would have to try and evade that and take her down quickly.

Master Splinter looked from each warrior to the other "Hajime!"

Letting out an angry roar, Raphael propelled himself forward, his Sai's stabbing air as Mai almost flashed out of the way. Raphael blinked while a wooden sword twisted around his shell to press itself against his neck.

"Yame!"

When Raphael had attacked, Mai had swiftly twisted her body backwards in a spinning kind of move so that she was able to turn the Bokken in her hand and slide it with ease onto his neck. She had curled herself onto his back to ensure that her next strike, if it had been with an actual sword, would've sliced his neck open and killed him. Thus winning the first sparring match.

Releasing him from his back, Mai bowed slightly towards his sensei who walked past her, Bokken again backwards in her hand as she did.

The other teenagers their eyes had turned white and wide, their mouths hanging open.

"Wooooooooooooooooooow…" Michelangelo said almost in slow-motion.

"That was…" Donatello couldn't find the word for it.

"Go Mai!" April cheered.

"Master Splinter!" Raphael stomped over to him angrily "Why did you stop the match, I wasn't even down!"

"Sensei," Leonardo began holding his arm up. Splinter looked over his shoulder as he stood before a sullen looking Raphael "Can I please spar with Mai now too?"

"No" Splinter looked back at Raphael "Not until Raphael has learned his lesson. Again"

Raphael looked up at his Master, a scowl set his features.

"Fine" He grumbled as the other teens realized this wasn't meant as a simple sparring match, but as a punishment.

Raphael took on his former position as did Mai.

Master=-Splinter sat back down observing both of them for a moment.

Raphael felt his blood boil, this time he wasn't going down so easily. If she tried that move again, he would simply step aside and strike her as fast and as hard as he could. No mercy.

"Hajime!"

Raphael exploded from his position and swung his Sai to hit her, only stabbing air again. Only this time he twisted his body fast enough to counter attack.

The problem in this was that Mai wasn't aiming to figuratively slice his neck open like last time, but instead aimed directly at his head.

But Raphael surprised her by retracting his head into his shell, making her miss. Raphael's popped back out and kicked her legs from underneath her.

Before she herself could fall onto the floor, Mai hit the floor with the wooden sword and pushed, making a backflip and creating some distance between her and Raphael who in turn was already charging at her.

Finding she had been lenient enough with the temperamental turtle, Mai quickened her pace, striking hard.

Raphael was down before he knew what hit him. It had felt like Mai had turn into a tornado, a hundred wooden swords hitting him everywhere, disarming him and knocking him over.

"Yame!" Master Splinter called.

The other teenagers sat silently, their mouths hanging open with big white eyes staring.

The technique Mai had used was one that – if she were to use her actual katana – was meant to overwhelm your enemy and making them fall back, creating the distance needed for a final blow with a katana that large.

But with a much lighter and shorter sword, the technique was transformed into a deadly surprise attack that could heavily wound an opponent.

Twisting one's body around and moving forward while switching your sword within your hand caused a blur of swords to dance in front of an opponent's eyes, and with applying the right pressure at the right moment while the sword would strike skin could cause the deadliest of wounds.

Mai bowed again as Raphael laid stunned and beaten on the floor. He at the moment was totally stunned by how fast she was, finally the idea had seeped into his mind that maybe, just maybe, she was strong enough.

But he shook that off.

Yeah, she was fast, but that didn't mean she could win against the Shredder. Standing up he growled "Don't think this is over just yet!"

Mai turned her face sideways at him, her white eyes shielded by the black of her sunglasses, she appeared to glare at him "That's _not_ up to _you_" She bit out, referring back to their conversation.

The other teens blinked, looking back and forth between the two.

"Does anybody else get the feeling something else is going on between those two?" April questioned quietly towards Donatello and Leonardo who both nodded.

"Nah, they're just really into it" Michelangelo smiled. The teens looked at him with questionable looks on their faces when Raphael replied sarcastically.

"Oh,_ is_ that _so_?" Raphael gathered his Sai from the ground and twisted them around in his hands "What's gonna stop me?"

Master Splinter frowned at the two warriors, wondering whether or not he should stop the match, but feeling that if Raphael and Mai had an argument, this might be the best way for them both to blow off some steam.

Mai took a couple of steps back and changed her stance, putting the wooden sword in front of her with both hands on the handle.

"Hajime!"

Mai charged, a flash of black and white.

Raphael only managed to hold her strike of by blocking the wooden sword with his Sai's. But Mai persisted, kicking his feet from underneath him like he did her.

Once he was down, Mai put her foot down on his stomach and slapped his Sai from his hands before pointing the Bokken between his eyes.

She wouldn't know why it mattered so much to her, the only thing that pumped through her veins was anger caused by a hurt she didn't know was there.

Under the surface something stirred – she trusted him, showed him a side of herself she didn't show to anybody else. And yet, with his quick temper, he had somehow betrayed that trust of which she wasn't aware was there to begin with.

And so without realizing these underlying feelings Mai spoke the words quietly, but with a sharpness equal to her actual blade, cutting through Raphael's skull "_Nothing_, apparently. You have _no_ Honor nor a sense of _Duty_, so I guess nothing stops you from betraying me"

"Yame!" Splinter called, ending the match "Well done Mai" Splinter complimented the Samurai, not showing he had heard the last thing she muttered to his son as he walked towards them.

Raphael got to his feet, looking at the ground. It was obvious there was an inner conflict waging war within him, in this too, Splinter didn't show he was aware of this fact.

Mai bowed "If you'd excuse me, Splinter-san, I think I'll be on my way now"

"You are going to the surface?" April questioned, a friendly smile on her face as she and the other turtles came to stand next to them.

Mai nodded, a rather forced smile playing on her lips.

"No! Onee!" Michelangelo whined childishly, suddenly hugging her "Can't you stay a little longer?"

With a lot of care, Mai untangled Michelangelo's arms gently from around her and shook her head "No." She said emotionlessly "I need to be…alone for a while" Mai announced and then turned to exit the dojo with multiples eyes staring after her as she left.

"What was that all about?" Leonardo asked raising his brows at Raphael. And Leonardo wasn't the only one staring with questioning looks at Raphael.

Raphael clenched his jaws and balled his hands into fists.

Indecision, that was what caused him to snap "Like.I' " He growled and stomped off.

What was he supposed to do?

He continued to run to his room, where he smacked the door closed with such vigor that the tremors caused some of the items getting knocked over and was followed by a thundering sound that startled Spike.

Raphael took a deep breath, not that it helped.

He was rigid.

_Why _did all _this_ have to happen?

_Why_ did he have to care_ so_ much?

_Why_ couldn't Mai be more _like_ April?

Not that he wanted that exactly, but more like the normalness that the red head had – especially the not suicide part.

Apologizing to Spike absently, Raphael plopped down on his bed and groaned. He could care less that he had lost to her three times in a row and that his family had witnessed it.

He could live with that, but what she said to him…

_'You have no Honor nor a sense of Duty'_

Raphael knew very clearly who he was, he was a fighter, the strong one. The people who he had fought up until now would backstab each other quicker than that they could steal each other's money, they had no idea what Honor and Duty was.

But it bugged him she saw him that way, that she might hate him for it, that she believed he had no sense of honor or duty.

But she was wrong about that though.

There was a sense of Honor and Duty in Raphael that was much stronger than that of his own brothers. If anyone, he was the most loyal to his family and his brothers and to the people he cared about.

One of the reasons why he felt so bad for making her feel like he was betraying the trust she had put into him.

Yet, what was he supposed to do? What _could_ he do?

Tell his family about what she planned to do and have Mai hate him for it?

No.

Or not tell them and let Mai get herself killed?

No.

Because she would die, either way, she'd get herself killed. He loved her and she'd die anyway…

* * *

After Raphael walked out, the family resumed their usual habits of either entertainment or distraction. Even April continued doing her homework, borrowing Donatello's laptop.

But after a couple of hours of no Raphael, she began to worry.

"Shouldn't one of you go talk to him?" She questioned when Michelangelo brought in fresh pizza and he and his other brothers started to eat.

"And get smacked?" Michelangelo retorted "No thanks, besides, this game needs to be played first" He smiled and showed off a new game for his old Gameboy he had found on his way back.

His other brothers looked at him and then back at April.

"April, I don't know if you've noticed" Donatello told politely "But _Raphael_ isn't exactly the talkative type, especially with emotional conflicts"

"Yeah sure, but still, maybe he does need someone to talk to this time" April pressed on, her brows furrowing at the lack of compassion the siblings had for their isolated family member.

Leonardo mused over it for a bit, April's eyes on him as he did and sighed "Sorry April, but I think Raphael will come out as soon as he is cooled off" He reassured her with a smile.

"You know what," April said standing up, she was fed up with the fact that none of them seemed to care "if none of you are going to talk to him, then I will" And marched of.

"April, wait!" Donatello exclaimed, tripping and falling onto the ground in his haste. But she was at his door faster than he could stop her.

* * *

Raphael had spent the majority of what remained of the day contemplating these things, coming up with nothing productive when there was a soft knock on his door.

Groaning, since he expected his father to be coming over to lecture him sooner or later, Raphael grumbled "Sensei, if that's you I am not interested in one of your stories…"

The door opened anyway, April peeking through "Hey"

Raphael blinked "Oh…hey April"

"May I come in?" She asked politely.

Raphael scratched the back of his head "I'm not really in the mood to,-"

"Well, just listen anyway" April told him with a wicked smile and entered the room closing door behind her. Raphael rolled his eyes at her and crossed his arms over his chest.

Sitting down next to Raphael, April looked at him gingerly "Look, I can't pretend that I understand what's going on here or why" April sighed as the turtle stared stubbornly at his wall "But whatever it is, you shouldn't let that keep you from, well, liking each other"

Raphael glanced at her, before staring back at the wall "It's more complicated than that" He managed to say without sneering. He knew that she had no clue about what was going on, which helped him soften his tone.

Well, at least she got that out of him "Probably, like I said, I don't know" She shrugged "If I did, I might be able to give you better advice"

Raphael frowned and then looked at April.

She was their first human friend and a girl at that, maybe she might give him the advice he needed to deal with his situation.

But he needed to tell her without telling her.

Raphael stood up, waltzing back and forth his room "Fine, but you have to promise not to tell anyone else"

April nodded.

Raphael sighed and then turned to her "Okay. So I can't _really_ tell you, because that's the point of it all, you know?"

April stared blankly at him, trying to decipher what he was saying.

Raphael grumbled – how on earth was he going to relay the story in his head to April without spilling it all out? "ugh, like, Mai told me _something_ without telling me it should be kept a secret because it's _something_ really personal and secret about her and I got mad because it was _stupid_ and want to tell everyone so we can help her with that personal _thing_ and do you get any of this?"

Raphael was really at the end of his vocabulary, if he were to say anything more, then he might as well tell it all.

"Don't worry, I think I got it" April reassured him "So Mai has a _secret _that's really _personal_ to _her_ and she told_ you_ without mentioning you shouldn't tell anyone else. But you want to tell us so we can help her with whatever personal problem she has so it gets solved" April summed up and looked at him "Right?"

Raphael just stared at her "You really are some kind of genius, do you know that?"

"Sometimes" April grinned and then her grin turned into a gentle smile "But from what I hear, she got mad because she still believes you are going to tell us"

"I just,-" Raphael growled and then sighed "I just don't know what to do…it's like she'll get _hurt_ either way…"

"Did you talk to Splinter about this?" April questioned.

"Not really…" Raphael hung his head "…that was about something else"

April raised her eyebrows "Something else?"

"Yeah," Raphael nodded and sat down next to the redheaded girl and pointed at his right arm "remember when Mai's arm got broken by that hideous mutant?"

April nodded "Toxic-Stinger"

"That's the one" Raphael said and put his arms on his knees and stared at his wall again "I think everybody already knows I have a…_thing_ for Mai – well more than a thing now, but you get my point" April repressed a giggle as he continued "Anyway, I tried to help her fight that thing, since I thought she needed my help, that I should save her, urging my brothers on to help me save her" Raphael sighed "But I was being stupid. If I hadn't intervened back then, her arm probably wouldn't have been broken and Toxic-Stinger would've been a goner"

April listened thoughtfully and asked the important question "What did Splinter say about that?"

Raphael smiled kind of bitterly "That I shouldn't have intervened, that if I had used my head I would've noticed that she could handle that thing just fine and that I should make amends"

"Well, she did hand you your shell to you today" April teased.

Raphael rolled his eyes "You can say that again"

The two teenagers grinned in similar amusement before Raphael sighed "But I just don't know what to do now. It's not the same thing as with Toxic-Stinger"

"Probably not," April agreed "but staying mad at her and her staying mad at you isn't going to help anyone either"

Raphael raised a brow "What are you saying?"

April smiled crookedly at him "I'm saying that you should '_make amends_' again, at least for now. You can't help her with anything if she's mad at you and doesn't want you around"

April got up and stretched her arms out above her.

Raphael was still looking dubiously at her "Sorry April, but I'm really doubting _that _idea"

Putting a hand on her hip, April raised an eyebrow of her own at him "How come?"

"Well, because she thinks I'm going to tell you guys" He pointed out weakly.

April smiled "Then let her know you won't"

Raphael looked at her, obvious skepticism on his face as April made it to his door "And _why_ would she belief me?"

Looking over her shoulder whilst opening the door, April winked at him "Because she trusts you" leaving the other teen to his own devices and closing the door behind her.

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

Well, well, well. Finally we have reached chapter 12 in my attempt to rewrite and correct as many mistakes as I possibly can.

But it is high time I submit/upload a new chapter, so thank you to everyone for your patience!

I will have chapter 13 submitted/uploaded later this evening!

Lots of love,

Siaanna


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

_**WARNING:**__ Major none grammar/spelling-control done on this one!_

**One Purpose**

* * *

Chapter 13

Jim looked at the list of items Mai had purchased the day before – these days it wasn't hard to check your bank account and see whatever had been written off.

He had found most of the shops she'd been too with the same ease, simply gathering up the clothes and footwear she had bought.

But by god, the girl hadn't picked anything other than a couple of black tank tops, long sleeved black shirts and black poofy pants.

Jim supposed it was because she was blind and therefore wouldn't care for anything else then what felt comfortable – but still.

The past couple of weeks the older gentleman had wondered what secrets lived within that silent girl he'd taken in.

To him, the girl was anything but ordinary.

Mai did not care for any kinds of foods other than simple cooked rice and fish, nothing else to wear but what she had on and no interest in anything _fun_.

Even if he could understand some of it, surrounding television and games, he found her lack of interest in music and reading shocking.

Which lead him to many other questions, like; _why_ was she here,_ how_ did she get here, _where_ were her parents, family?

Oh, she told him something ridiculous along the lines of murder and vengeance, but she could've told him she was some fairy princess and make _that _sound more believable.

Normally he'd never ask anybody these things, it didn't matter. But Jim started to really care for this hopelessly lost kitten he'd taken in.

And that she was.

A lost child, even though she considered herself to be an adult, Jim often caught glimpses of the girl when she thought he looked the other way.

In those glimpses the amused mask she wore slid off momentarily and he saw what was really going on behind those ghostly white eyes.

When Jim just started out as a doctor, no, even as an intern, he had to deal with a lot of different types of patients. But those who really stuck with him, were the ones who either died at the end or tried killing themselves.

The same kind of chill ran through the man when he saw the look on Mai's face, the look of someone who knew they were going to die and were accepting it.

It completely_ terrified_ him.

Stepping into the next shop, Jim nodded to himself as he decided they would have a long hard talk about this later that day about all of it.

Looking around, Jim found himself in an Asian Art Shop and looked at the piece of paper in his hands with all the items written on it.

Apparently she had gotten some kind of incense from the shop – probably for her feng shui stuff or something.

"Hello? Excuse me, I need some help?" Jim called out, since the store appeared to be empty. He looked around, hopeful he might see a clerk come his way, when he something caught his eye.

* * *

Mai had spent the day walking around the streets, absently managing not to hit anyone or get run over as she walked.

And walked.

Until night fell and her feet were dragging her back to the house she was currently living in. Why did the fight drain so much her though? Mai wandered as she went up the few steps and got her keys out.

Raphael.

The name gave off a bitter taste in her mouth as she thought about how he had _betrayed_ her. That word lingered in her mind, stopping her from actually using the key in her hand.

He _betrayed_ her.

With what exactly, for not helping her out with her suicide mission and thus forcing her to meet her end so much sooner?

Wasn't she being a bit hypocritical considering she was postponing the inevitable for over two _years _now?

Mai shook her head violently.

Though it felt more like she was shaking herself on the inside.

No, that wasn't true, she thought sternly, her Master would rather she avenged his murder then directly kill herself. Because he liked to make her suffer that way.

But she wasn't doing this for her Master, she didn't want that, she was doing this for herself, to restore _her_ honor.

The front door clicked open, startling Mai out of her deep and dreading thoughts.

"Oh thank goodness" Jim exclaimed as he saw the Japanese girl on his door step "I was about to call the police and,-"

"You said you wouldn't call the police" Mai interrupted rudely.

Jim blinked at the sharpness with which she said it and tried to explain "No, that's true, but you weren't home and didn't leave any note and,– " He cut himself off, shaking his head when he remembered he should question her "where _were_ you?"

"Out" Mai answered and walked passed him inside.

Watching her walk up the stairs, Jim felt something was terribly wrong with her "Mai!" He called out and shut the door behind him.

Mai stopped, standing half way up the stairs, she turned as if to look at him "What is it, Jim?" She asked, voice paper thin.

"Are you alright?" Jim asked gingerly, cautiously walking over to her.

At that moment, all sort of emotions came crashing down on her like a wave and a strange sound filled the hallway.

Rushing over to her, Jim caught her and held her in his arms "Sssh, it's okay, it's okay" He reassured her.

Mai's knees buckled underneath her and all she could do was hold on with her arms – her right arm starting to throb yet again from the strain she was putting on it, but Mai didn't feel it.

Realizing the strange sound was her own sobbing, Mai stopped crying altogether.

She was so shocked that she was sobbing, let alone that she was crying, that the harsh truth hit her in the face – literally slapping her out of it.

For the past 10 years Mai hadn't shed a single tear, hadn't felt a single emotion or a thought of her own up until her Master had died. She had been nothing more than an emotionless puppet in those years serving her master.

Sure there were underlying thoughts and feelings, but they had never surfaced as they had the past few months.

And dealing with them was something she hadn't done…ever.

Like swimming against the current, Mai tried to put enough effort in to comeback from her moment of 'weakness'.

"I'm fine" She muttered hoarsely.

Pulling back from the hug, Jim held her by her shoulders "Are you sure?"

Another wave crashed over her with feelings and all she wanted to do was scream 'no', but with another flood of tears streaming down her face, Mai nodded – too afraid that if she spoke her voice would crack.

Jim couldn't help but smile at how silly she was being "Come on, let's go to the kitchen and I'll make us some tea"

Dragging her by her hand to the kitchen, Jim made tea. Passing Mai a tissue box that had been hidden and unused inside one of the cupboards.

Removing her sunglasses, Mai shamefully gotten a couple of the square little white things and dried her face.

Setting down her cup of tea and holding his own, Jim sat down opposite of Mai before he spoke "Now, I realize you might not want to talk about why you are so upset, but,-"

"I don't" Mai cut him off, but this time a bit less venomously and raised her cup of tea before she blew the steam from the hot liquid inside it "And I'm not upset" She added.

"Then why did you just break down in tears?" Jim questioned, less amused then before.

Mai pressed her lips into a thin line.

Like she'd know what actually triggered all that – she knew where it came from, all those emotions, but not what triggered them into action just in that moment.

"I don't know" She said finally, setting down her cup on the table without drinking from it.

Frowning, Jim tried a second time to break through that thick wall of hers "Well, why don't you tell me how your day was, we might find,-"

"I thought I said I didn't want to talk about it" Mai grumbled, feeling yet another set of tears fill her eyes – Mai cursed angrily under her breath as she got another tissue to prevent them from streaming down her face.

"Mai" Jim said sternly as he watched clumsily wipe her tears "I won't force you to talk to me, I can understand that you might want some space to get your thoughts together, but" Jim looked at his own cup as her eyes darted his way "I've been meaning to ask you something very important"

Mai wasn't sure she could handle any more questions or just people in general at the moment, but out of sheer respect for the kind doctor, she waited patiently for Jim to continue.

Feeling like this was actually a bad time to start _this _conversation with Mai's emotional breakdown, Jim had trouble gathering the right words in the right places "Well…uh…I…uhm, well I thought that…you see, since you…ah...have been on the streets, maybe not,- mean, there's nothing wrong with that,-"

"What is it" Mai demanded, tired of his babbling and really just wanting a long bath.

Startled by her harsh tones, Jim kind of just let the words fall out of his mouth "I'm going to do research on your background"

Silence.

Rethinking what he said, Jim almost nervously tried to explain further "Not in a bad way! I just think it would be a good idea to find out who you really are so we perhaps can find your family and get you a passport and you could then perhaps get a visa or something,-" He took a deep breath as he saw her completely blank face "I know you might not approve, but I think it is the best thing to do at the moment, for your future, and perhaps whatever the reason is you left your family back home in Japan,-"

"My family is dead" Mai informed him emotionlessly.

Jim blinked "All of them?"

That question didn't have a direct cut-off answer, and Mai had trouble with remembering "I don't…know" She said finally and put her head on her hands as she leaned forward.

"Well, see?" Jim said standing up and walking towards her to put his hand on her shoulder "You might still have them, most families are quite big you know" He added reassuringly.

But to Mai this was terrible. All these new thought and feelings she already had to deal with until her final moment and NOW this?

She rather commit Seppuku* now.

"So why don't you give me your surname, so we can start looking" Jim asked gently.

"I don't know what is" Mai finally answered after a moment and straightened up to get rid of the kind hand on her shoulder.

"You don't know what your last name is?" Jim questioned, shocked.

"No, I used to, when I was young…" Mai took her cup of tea in her hands, feeling the first hot liquid had cooled down quite a bit and took a sip "But…I haven't used it in years so I don't…"

More questions bubbled up, but Jim wasn't entirely dense and knew better then to make her rush into this. He was glad though, to know that he was right about her needing the help he was offering "It's alright. Let's not further discus it and leave it for tomorrow"

Mai simply nodded, she didn't have the energy anymore to even speak. After they finished their tea, Mai stood up without saying a word, heading out to the stairs when Jim remembered something.

"Oh Mai, uh, I got you the things that you bought yesterday and…something extra" He told her before she went up.

Mai wasn't entirely sure how she should respond to that "…okay?" She said lamely, and continued up the stairs to her room.

Walking in, Mai found the shopping bags on against the wall on the side and went straight towards them.

After a bit of digging, she found what she was looking for, pj's, and walked off to the bathroom. Letting the water run in the tub, Mai didn't waste a second, threw off her clothes and entered the still empty tub.

When the tub was full, some of her wounds itched painfully when they got wet, but that was a pain Mai could handle.

Her mind was still filled with so many things at the same time and all she wanted to do was lie there and never wake up ever again.

Tears again sprung up in her eyes as she remembered how her day had gone, no, how messed up her life really was.

Evaluating herself at the moment, Mai could only guess the reason for her emotional state was because it took so long – not having her master around she was free to feel and speak her mind, rather than never say a word or do anything that she wasn't ordered to do so otherwise.

Maybe Raphael was right about one thing though, avenging her master was stupid – she could admit to that. But it wasn't a lie that she didn't have choice in the matter, this was how her world worked and who she was.

Feeling somewhat better, Mai sighed. It might be better that she and Raphael weren't going to see each other anymo,– wait she and Raphael?

Well he was her strongest link to the Hamato family, so she probably meant that. Mai nodded.

Yes, it would be better not associate herself with them anymore then she already had, it would only cause more hurt then necessary.

Content with those thoughts, Mai got out of the tub and dried herself off, putting on her brand new pj's and went to sit on her bed.

But she found that 'something extra' Jim had talked about before she went upstairs. Feeling the object up, she found it must be wrapped in some kind of thick wrapping paper with a big bow on top.

She opened it with an annoyed look.

And yet, her expression changed and more tears settled in her blind eyes as she felt the silk and the cotton and the angles the material changed in.

A Yukata*.

Quickly putting the thing back in the wrapper, Mai put it away in her closet when her T-phone vibrated in her small backpack.

She had completely forgotten she had one and realized she had received two gifts on the same day. Mai idly wondered whether or not she wanted to read the text that was sent to her, especially when she had decided to no longer associate herself with the turtles…and rat.

But feeling rude for not using her gift – and thinking it might be an emergency of some kind – Mai quickly grabbed her first gift and read:

[_I'm SORRY. _

_Look, I've been sitting here in my room all day figuring how to tell you just that. I'm SORRY. I won't tell my family anything as long you don't go asking them where to find the Shredder, deal? I hope you can forgive me for being an idiot._

_Raph._]

She might count this as a third gift, at least by how lighthearted she suddenly felt. She wouldn't lose her new friends.

She texted him back without thinking about it:

[_Thank you, that means a lot to me Raphael-kun._

_And I'm sorry too, for the sparring thing…_

_See you tomorrow? My place as usual?_

_Mai._]

She took her phone to bed, but before she could even lie down, his reply came:

[_Sure_]

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my Lovely's!

So as you may or may not have read above the title, this chapter didn't kept cleaned up at all – but no biggy, will clean it later.

Anyway, many twists and turns in this one, eh? Well, emotions are running High and Mai is getting slapped in the face with them.

Poor thing, hopefully you guys don't find her too bitchy – if you do, well, prepare yourself, it's going to get a whole lot worse from here on out!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the story so far!

Lots of love,

Siaanna

*_Seppuku_ \- Seppuku (切腹?, "stomach-cutting", "abdomen-cutting") is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai.

*_Yukata_ \- A yukata (浴衣?) is a Japanese garment, a casual summer kimono usually made of cotton or synthetic fabric, and unlined.


	14. Chapter 14

[**IMPORTANT**: If you are _NOT_ caught up with the series thus far, this will spoil 'Episode 16 – The Pulverizer' for you somewhat! Also, it is a good idea to rewatch that episode for this chapters sake!]

**WARNING: **_Major none grammar/spelling control done on this one!_

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

**One Purpose**

Chapter 14

They had been waiting down by the tracks for over an half hour and Michelangelo wasn't the only one getting impatient.

Donatello had them wait there for his latest secret invention, but Raphael had to meet up with Mai very soon and wasn't planning on waiting much longer.

Ever since they texted each other a couple a days ago, he was sure that he could keep an eye on her. That would be his plan for the time being though, making sure she both wouldn't face the shredder or be able to kill herself.

It made their relationship, for a lack of a better word of it, strange.

It wasn't just because they avoided certain subjects or the fact he could not express his true feelings for her, but Mai had changed.

He didn't know what changed exactly, but something did.

"Ugrrh, what's taking so long!" Michelangelo groaned, looking at him as he whined "Donnie knows I have short atten,-" aaand something caught his little brothers eye "Oooh! Gum!"

Slapping the sticky goo from Michelangelo's hand before he could put the nasty thing in his mouth, Raphael said "Man, this better be worth it" when they heard something approaching them.

They all turned to look at the massive armored looking vehicle approaching and then stopping in front of them with wide eyes.

Before the door dinged open, Raphael muttered "Worth it" Completely forgetting all other things, including Mai.

Leaning against the doorway, Donatello looked smugly at his siblings "So?"

Leonardo walked closer "You turned Leatherheads old subway cart into this?" He questioned, amazed.

"Donnie, have I ever told you how awesome you are?" Raphael asked, not believing how cool this thing was.

Enjoying their stunned faces, and the fact that Raphael was implying he finally was cooler than the others, Donatello grinned "No, you haven't"

"Well, I'm seriously considering it" Raphael said, as Michelangelo moved closer towards it and hug the thing.

"So, what do you call this thing?" Leonardo asked.

Smiling even more brightly "Well, it's a trans excelled multi armored electromagnetic,-"

"SHELLRAISER" Michelangelo interrupted.

"What?" Donatello asked weakly taken aback by Michelangelo's sudden comment.

"Shellraiser!" He repeated gladly "It's the perfect name"

His older siblings shared a look before Leonardo agreed "That _is _the perfect name"

"Of course it is, bro" Michelangelo grinned "You guys always underestimate me" And then something caught his eye "Ooh! Gum!"

Following Donatello in, Raphael remembered he was going to see Mai. He wasn't supposed to be there yet until an hour or so, he guessed he would be back on time and thus went with his brothers.

* * *

He was late.

No, he was incredibly late. Was he on patrol again with his brothers? No, he would text her if he was…and if he was running late.

And if nothing was wrong, he would be able to answer her texts then right?

Worry.

Mai was worried and the only place she knew where to find them was their home in the sewers, so that is where she ran off to.

Mai had interesting couple of days, hanging out with solely Raphael again. Even though she was thankful her emotional breakdown didn't last, it did leave some permanent wounds that unlike, her arm and leg, didn't seem to heal.

She could bear it though, or rather, suppress them like she always used too, but somehow fear had taken over the confidence she once had.

Fear that her emotions would strike yet again, making her feel vulnerable and irrational.

Heading down the familiar path, she could sense some form of commotion within the liar. Entering it, it came from Donatello's lab.

"Hey, do you know how to drive?" Donatello's asked in his unusual moody tone.

"Keh! Are you kiddin'?" An unfamiliar voice all but laughed "I've been driving an ice cream truck all summer"

"Donatello-san?" Mai called out before the tallest turtle entered the Shell-racer whilst rolling his eyes at the doofus that was the Pulverizer.

"Whose she?" The idiot asked as Mai walked in half running.

Ignoring the hero-wannabe, Donatello was actually glad to see her "Oh, thank goodness, you're here!" He exclaimed.

Mai approached him "What's going on? Is Raphael-kun hurt?" coming to a standstill as the fat boy stood very closely next to her she asked dubiously "Whose he?"

Not having the time to explain or ask questions himself about the sudden change from formal 'san' to 'kun' that she used while saying his injured brothers name, Donatello pulled her inside the Shell-Racer "At the moment…" He looked how the Pulverizer took Leonardo's station "…He's our driver"

"Driver?" Mai's face became pale. They were in the a car?

The idiot grinned widely at her as the subway cart roared to life "Yup, the name's Pulverizer ma'am, at your service!"

Both Mai and Donatello stared at him for a moment, before Mai turned her blind gaze in Donatello's direction "He's a doofus" She stated before face palming herself, sitting down unbeknownst in Raphael's section "and you are letting him _drive_?"

"Well sor-RY, _Mai_," Donatello snapped back and under the stress of having to fix an formula ASAP, he continued sarcastically while opening the box to make the thing "I have to fix your _boyfriend_ an antidote here whose been bitten by a giant venomous robotic fish!"

Pulverizer started driving, and after some complaints from Donatello to go faster, they were outside on the street hitting one object then another. Not to mention Michelangelo's screams coming from Donatello's t-phone.

While dealing with the motion sickness that was slowly but surely settling because it disturbed her ability to orientate herself, Mai's mind had Donatello comment ringing in her head like a church bell going off in the distance.

She knew he didn't mean to imply she and Raphael were in that kind of a relationship and that he was stressed out while saying it, but Mai had the strange idea that he actually meant to imply just exactly that.

She shook her head to clear her mind, which was a stupid thing to do, considering now she felt some barf getting stuck in her throat and dizziness finally pulling her head from one side to another.

She thought she was going to actually throw up after hearing Raphael doing it on the other end of the phone.

"Almost there" She heard Donatello say and to her, he seemed to have suddenly appeared in front – and was praying what he was saying was true.

That was when she heard the machines bleep.

"What's, going on?" Mai asked weakly.

"The road's blocked" The Pulverizer answered while looking at the screens with worry "We gotta go around"

"No time to go around!" Donatello retorted "You gotta jump it!"

"What?!" The Pulverizer questioned.

Oh dear lord, no. Mai grabbed whatever she could hold onto.

Donatello leaned in close next to him "You want to be a hero, _jump_ it!"

Please don't.

The Pulverizer swallowed "Yeahahh…uh, about that hero thing…"

Donatello grabbed the wheel "_JUMP_ **IT**!"

The car sped up, Mai could feel that and when it knocked something big over which send the whole thing flying, bringing along the weightlessness.

And then they crashed right through a wall, screeching to a halt.

Mai never had a milkshake before in her life, but she quite certain that her insides felt like one – not to mention her head.

Vaguely, her mind registered something break, but she was pushed aside by Donatello who fired up the trash canon and aimed and shot it at their enemies.

Donatello rushed outside, followed by the Pulverizer while Mai struggled to find her footing.

But she managed to make it out the hellish thing, swaying from one side to another.

"Onee's! Here" Michelangelo called out and ran towards Mai, while Donatello took care of Raphael. Shaking her head a second time, it finally worked and Mai straightened up, getting a hug from Michelangelo.

"What happened here?" Mai questioned, looking in the direction of Leonardo who was approaching her.

"One of Shredders mutant goons got an Kraang robot update, thanks to Derek Stoick" Leonardo explained while they walked towards Donatello helping Raphael.

One of Shredders goons "They ran off?" Mai questioned.

"Yeah, Fishface and the purple dragons went that way" Michelangelo pointed over his shell in the direction he saw Fishface leave.

"Fish…face?"

"Yeah, the goon I was talking about, Mikey named him fish face" Leonardo still couldn't help but grin at how funny Xever had become.

"It was either that, or robocarp,- Hey!" Michelangelo began to laugh when Mai suddenly ran off in the direction their enemies had taken off to "Onee?!"

"That was awesome!" The Pulverizer exclaimed excitedly as Donatello helped his brother up "We saved him!"

"_We saved him?!_" Donatello repeated irritably "You wanted to stop and sell ice cream! If I hadn't jumped and smashed through that wall,-!"

"Uh, Donnie" Michelangelo interrupted worriedly, everything seemed to go wrong all of a sudden "Is the shellraiser supposed to do that?"

"Uh no, Mikey" Donatello said in horror as he saw his baby glow pinkish purple and headed towards it.

"Wait, Mai ran off after Fishface and the Purple dragons" Michelangelo said and asked looking at Leonardo "Shouldn't we go help her first?"

"WHAT!?" Raphael shouted.

Michelangelo began speaking slowly to his just almost poisoned brother "I said, 'Wait, Mai,-"

"I'm not deaf Mikey!" Raphael growled, scaring his youngest sibling "Why was she here in the first place?!"

"Guys, I would love to explain that, but the Shellraiser doesn't look so good,-" Donatello began.

"Then you guys go check on it, I'll go get Mai" Raphael barked and ran off.

"Raph! You just can't,-!" Leonardo called after him but the red cladded ninja was already around the corner.

* * *

Mai was catching up on them. They had fled outside the building and were running through alleys to keep from sight, but the one she wanted was the one making robotic sounds.

She had climbed up, running over rooftops when out of nowhere she heard the heavy familiar footfall.

"Go help your brothers, Raphael-kun" Mai said, when she was getting closer to Fishface and Raphael was getting closer to her.

He needed to stop her "We need _your_ help, Mai"

She didn't stop.

Grabbing her arm, he pulled her to a halt, smacking her against a wall.

"The Shellraiser is busted, we have a moroon hanging around us, I almost _died_," He growled, but saw her angry expression soften at the mention of his death "and all you can think about is how to help yourself!"

"Because you are helping me?!" Mai yelled back, finding fuel in his hypocrisy as she listened her target getting further and further away.

"Yes! I mean, no! I mean!" Raphael backed up and let her go "You know what, we have been going around this topic again and again" he balled his hands and posed to turn back, his siblings needed him more at the moment. He knew that and that was the only thing that made up his mind at the moment "and I'm down with it. You can say all you want, but choosing to abandon your allies for your own selfish goals isn't honorable in anyway Mai"

He was talking crud and they both knew it, the danger had passed so there wasn't any 'abandoning' going on here.

Mai sighed as she heard the robotic sound disappear entirely "Then why come after me? Isn't that the same thing?"

"They are my brothers, they're used it by now" Raphael could sense she was dropping her chase and put his hand on her shoulder "your my ally, Mai"

His touch send a little bit of electric shocks through her arm when Raphael t-phone rang answering it, Mai could clearly hear who yelled through it [RAPH! Get your shell back to the Shellraiser ASAP!]

"We're on our way, Leo" Raphael answered as they headed back.

Mai had been wrong, very wrong about them not needing her help.

Once back, Donatello explained what was wrong. The Kraang were coming, since the glass that protected the power-cell broke, they could detect the energy signal – thus they needed to hurry and get underground where it was harder to detect.

It was a good thing Mai had at least one of her two weapons with her, though she had rather would've liked to have her katana – her smaller blade was all she needed if they were going to fight the Kraang.

Mai kind of hoped that having Leonardo as the driver would make the ride to the underground less horrible – she was wrong.

To put it lightly, he was worse than when the Pulverizer was behind the wheel – and that was saying something.

They rounded another corner roughly, making her insides feel like an overly shaken milkshake. And with everyone on high alert, even Raphael seemed to pay her no mind to her insides wanting to come out.

A second corner in was when they appeared, two van straight ahead, three behind and a helicopter above.

The two out front passed them, and Mai did have to give Leonardo some credit for not stirring away, when they turned and started firing on them.

"Hold her steady, Leo" Raphael said as he stared determinately at the screen "I'll take care of these jokers"

And he went outside to fire manhole covers.

"I'm going out to help Raphael-kun" Mai said weakly, not being able to stand the inside of the shellraiser anymore.

"What, wait! Mai!" Leonardo exclaimed as she opened the side door. With her orientation off, she could still hear them.

One of the vans thought to an opening with her holding the door open, when in actuality this was just what Mai was waiting for.

Literally taking a leap of faith, Mai jumped the van, landing almost painfully wrong but managed to regain her balance. At least the robots knew how to drive steadily.

Mai took out her smaller blade from behind her backpack, and stabbed the robot directly under her in the head that was sitting in the passenger seat.

Landing behind her and next to her on the Shellraiser while Raphael fired at everything following them, were Kraang bots that could fly.

Quickly cutting the one behind her in her half, Donatello and Michelangelo appeared on top of the Shellraiser to stop the Kraang that had landed there.

"Leo!" Michelangelo yelled fearfully as the other flying Kraang swarmed above them for an attack "Kraang can fly! KRAANG CAN FLYYYYY!"

Michelangelo was grabbed and almost flung of the Shellraiser when Mai got almost hit herself, knocking her off balance.

She would've regained it, would the good robot driver decided then and there to hit the brakes, knocking her off.

"Mai!" Raphael shouted as he saw her hit and fall into a trash container on the side of the road when Leonardo had to avoid another van coming from straight ahead, causing them to crash land into the side of a building.

Groaning, Mai pushed open the trash container and got out. She was about to empty her stomach then and there when she heard the fighting coming from down the street.

Taking in a deep breath to steady herself, Mai grabbed her blade off of the ground and sped towards the first of the robotic bodies.

Slicing them up until she got in the middle of the fight where Raphael and the others were. Raphael greeted her with his usual sarcastic tone "Now aren't you glad you were wrong?"

"Aren't you glad I'm on your side?" Mai retorted, smiling her small smile while beheading a Kraang bot about to fire at Raphael.

More Kraang surrounded them while they smiled at each other.

"Aw, isn't that romantic?" Michelangelo cooed while whacking a bot senseless, when another seemed to flee in the opposite direction being chased by the Pulverizer.

Hacking a couple of Kraang bots in two, Leonardo noticed the fleeing Kraang holding the powercell "He's got the cell!"

"I'll stop him!" The Pulverizer assured, passing by Donatello who was fighting off a Kraang bot determined to cut him in two.

"Plverizer! No!" Donatello called out.

Mai got stuck between two bots who were also very determined with cutting her in two as Donatello and Pulverizer were yelling at each other.

Raphael wanted to help her, but he knew better now, besides, he really had his hands full with his own group of Kraang that asked for a beating.

And after a moment, she proved him right by kicking them to the ground first before cutting their robot bodies.

"Impressive" Mai complimented Raphael once they had beaten the remaining robots, he of course had taken on most of them.

"Thanks" Raphael grinned "Not so bad yourself"

"Glad you finally noticed" Mai laughed as they walked over to Donatello and the Pulverizer, and their happy faces turned sullen. The Kraang helicopter got away from them with the powercell, so there was no reason for their celebrating.

"ah, man. Looks like I mucked everything up, didn't I?" The Pulverizer said when Donatello helped him to his feet and they watched as the helicopter fly away. Donatello hung his head.

"Hey bro, it's not your fault" Michelangelo reassured kindly.

"Uhm, actually, Mikey, it is" Leonardo corrected him.

Michelangelo's eyes went wide "Oh yeah"

"Not completely," Donatello commented "I'm the one who send the Shellraiser through the wall and that's what cracked the powercell"

"I can attest to that" Mai wrinkled her nose in distaste "You all have poor driving skills" and then shuddered at the memory of her almost vomit.

"Well, considering we don't have drivers licenses that is probably true" Donatello remarked.

"Then maybe it's a good thing that the Kraang things took back the powercell" Mai retorted and pointed with her shoulder at the Shellraiser "I know I'm glad I don't have to sit in that thing again" Everyone stared her like she was the stupidest person they ever met "What?" Mai demanded when she could feel their eyes on her.

"So you would rather have the Kraang using the powercell to drag all sorts of dangerous things out of their dimension then us using it to power up the shellraiser?" Raphael questioned, not believing his inside ears.

Mai raised her eyebrows "That's what they use it for?!"

"Well, dah!" the turtles said in unison.

"How was I supposed to know that?" Mai said throwing her hands up.

"Onee, you just don't like the Shellraiser because it turns you green" Michelangelo teased, pointing out her dizziness.

Mai's face turned bright red, something they have never seen her do before "No, I don't like the Shellraiser _because_ a couple of licenses-less teens are,-!"

"Ahh…so!" The Pulverizer interrupted and looked at Donatello "You think we could pick up our training again sometime?"

Raphael grinned brightly and nudged her with his elbow while Donatello walked up to the hero-wannabe and layed his hand briefly on his shoulder "No"

Mai huffed, embarrassedly "Stop it, it's not funny" She muttered.

"Fine, but I'll be practicing and I'll be back!" The Pulverizer announced "And wherever crime may roam, wherever help is,-!"

"**_BYE!_**" They all exclaimed, including Mai, cutting the poor kid off.

The Pulverizer hung his head and turned to walk off.

"I've gotta figure out we are going to get that powercell back" Donatello thought out loud.

"Which raises the question," Leonardo began and they all turned to look in the direction of the Shellraiser – except Mai "How are we going to get the Shell raiser home?"

"Maybe we can all a tow-truck?" Michelangelo suggested cheerful "Oh! Maybe the pizza-guy can help and we can pay him by ordering pizza!"

Raphael slapped the back of Michelangelo's head "Don't be stupid"

"You are going to let him walk home alone?" Mai suddenly asked.

"He's a big boy" Raphael reassured her, not caring about the idiot at all.

Leonardo agreed with his hot-tempered brother for once "yeah, besides we could really use the extra muscle towing this thing back down the sewer"

Hearing the words of his sensei in his head about the pulverizer being his responsibility, Donatello sighed "Well, he does get beat up a lot, I don't know if he is really safe going home by himself…in a turtle looking costume you guys" they all stared at him, Mai raised an eyebrow, she had no idea what she should think about someone dressing up as a turtle "not to mention, the four of us got him into the his mess to begin with"

After a moment of silence, Leonardo groaned "Fine"

"Be back in a bit" Mai smiled.

Raphael just shook his head as he and his brother went to work and Mai disappeared up on the roofs, following that doofus home.

* * *

Mai followed the Pulverizer all the way back to his home, where he got back safely, without anyone attacking him.

But when she turned and headed back to the liar, Mai heard it. Robotic legs that was walking somewhere in the distance.

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

So I guess I was kind of too pumped to write this, because now we are getting closer and closer to that ending though XD

Anyway, so Mai almost ran off without so much as a second thought to go get Fishface, probably to get the info she needs from him or something, and now again a chance to reach her goal!

No spoilers :P

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you have enjoyed the story thus far!

Lots of Love,

Siaanna


	15. Chapter 15

[**IMPORTANT**: If you are _NOT_ caught up with the series thus far, this will spoil 'Episode 17 – TCRI' for you somewhat! Also, it is a good idea to rewatch that episode for this chapters sake!]

**WARNING: Major none grammar/spelling control done on this one!**

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

* * *

**One Purpose**

Chapter 15

The full moon was gleaming white-blue through the clouds and skyscrapers in the background. The night was filled with far away sounds of city life. Urban night life, people going to clubs or restaurants, cats fighting in an alley, cars driving wildly and honking, a couple fighting over something stupid.

A stark contrast of the reality disturbing scene that played out on the rooftops where 'normal' people slept, laughed, cried, loved.

She'd cornered him once he had climbed the rooftop to get rid of whatever was following him. No, Xever had purposefully climbed the roof to fight, figuring it must be one of the turtles or another known enemy who sought to fight him.

But when a raven-haired girl jumped into view on the roof, he couldn't help but laugh "Oh, and here I thought I would get another shot at my ugly green friends"

She didn't reply to that and his laughter stilled as she approached him, drawing her blade from her back.

Xever's amusement disappeared and growled "If it is a fight you want, Mocinha, then it is a fight you will get"

He wouldn't let him get frightened by a silent girl holding a strange looking Tanto. Xever took his stance to fight and the girl stopped, at first the fish-man thought she got scared and would back off, but was surprised.

She took a stance of her own, her left arm going behind her back as she crouched with her legs slightly apart.

Xever had a hard time deciphering this unknown enemy, her silence as mysterious as the blank expression on her face. It didn't help that he couldn't see her eyes thanks to her black streamlined sunglasses.

"Last chance, Mocinha" Xever warned "If you wish to _live_, I would advise you to,-"

Without any warning of her own, the girl struck forward with incredible speed, forcing Xever to dodge and flip backwards.

Something had triggered her into an attack, which she continued relentlessly. Xever grunted when he stopped her blade from slicing off his arm with his new robotic legs.

He kicked her back in the stomach and she groaned quietly in response, before swinging back around to strike again.

Xever dodged and flipped to kick her in the head, but the raven was quick and dropped to her knees, kicking Xever's arms from the ground.

He fell on his head hard, but got the pleasure of using his tail to smack to the side so she'd fall from the roof.

The girl however took the blow of his strong tail and kept her balance, striking back by grabbing his tail instead and putting her foot on his stomach, holding him in his place.

Xever growled, before feeling the sharp edge of her blade on his throat.

"If _you_ wish to live," The blade pressed harder onto his large throat as she leaned closer "You will tell me where Shredder's hideout is"

Her voice was blank, even with her slight accent, there was no emotion and a cold shiver ran down Xever's mutant spine. But the mutant wasn't unfamiliar with the sensation and wasn't scared that easy either.

"And you think beating me around for a bit will loosen my tongue and betray Master Shredder?" He snickered mockingly and then let his robotic legs twist around, kicking her in the head "I'm not some lowly goon, Mocinha!"

The girl stumbled backwards as her sunglasses fell from her face broken and the place where the robotic foot hit her started to bleed.

Xever grinned widely, his pointy creepy as he watched her bleed. But his expression changed when ghostly white eyes locked on him.

Xever frowned when he realized she was blind "Normally, I do not care for useless background information of the people stomp into the ground," The girl got to her feet as he spoke "But this time I'll make an exception" he launched himself at her, pinning her to ground with his feet and kicking her Tanto from her hand.

As she lay struggling defenselessly underneath his robotic legs, he leaned in close, bringing his face to hers "So, who are you, Mocinha?"

The girl stopped struggling and seemed to stare it him once more. Xever stared back, getting lost in the whiteness of her scarred eyes, hypnotized like a dear seeing the lights of an upcoming truck on a highway.

She then swung her free legs around his tail and pulled him backwards, freeing herself from his robotic feet as he flipped backwards onto the gravel. Grabbing her Tanto quickly, she stood over him, pointing it only an inch away from his face.

"My name is Mai and I've come to avenge my Master by killing yours" Mai replied.

Xever didn't think she was joking, but thinking of this slim girl 'killing' _the_ Shredder to avenge her Master was just plain ridiculous. Not to mention hilarious.

"You want to KILL Master Shredder?!" He laughed, louder and longer this time, making the girl scowl.

She stabbed him in his shoulder to make him stop "And I will kill you too if you do not tell me where I can find him"

The wound on his shoulder stung and he growled at her "Oh, I'll gladly let yourself get killed by Master Shredder, but you see," Xever stood up, ignoring the blade that followed him as he did "I'm afraid he is a bit too busy with dealing with a _runt_ such as yourself"

"That isn't my problem" She replied and inched closer, her blade back on his throat again.

Again, Xever was caught by her ghostly white eyes, but managed to keep his head clear "It will be" He breathed and kicked her yet again, but this time with enough force to send her flying backwards off the roof.

Even though he would gladly finish her off then, he was already late with his return to the Shredder, not to mention she fell to close near the road and he couldn't be seen. Cursed mutation.

* * *

Mai hung onto the fire-escape and groaned. The hit struck her harder then she would've thought, but then again, he did have robotic legs.

Sheathing her blade, Mai pulled herself up as she heard the robotic legs disappear in the distance. Blood was dripping down her face from the head wound she gotten from the robotic foot in her face. It started to soak her black tank top and new denim jacket, turning the light fabric into greasy red.

Slight dizziness settled in, or rather returned, considering it had been one dizzy night.

She would NEVER enter another vehicle again with either of the turtles behind the wheel, hell, she would never go into another vehicle period.

Mai inhaled a deep breath as she sat down and leaned her head against the brick wall behind her and next to a bedroom window.

Inside the ocean-themed bedroom was a young blonde girl was happily singing along to her favorite cartoon that was blasting loudly from the surround sound.

Choosing to not give herself a headache, one that was already inevitable, Mai got to her feet and went down the fire-escape.

The building was a whole lot higher then she had anticipated and so she jumped to the nearest other building to recover their for a bit.

Sitting down, she could still faintly hear the music, but it wasn't as bad as before.

She was one step closer.

Mai knew that the henchman would definitely report back to his master about her, that someone came to avenge a lost master.

She had to be satisfied with just that at moment, it was the closest she'd ever come to the Shredder before.

Would he seek her out?

Her T-phone suddenly vibrated, shaking her violently out of her thought.

Feeling the dots on the screen, she knew it was Raphael.

She sighed before answering it.

[Mai, what's keeping you so long? Does that doofus live in Canada or something?] Came Raphael's irritated voice.

"I was_ just_ returning, Raphael-kun" Mai answered while standing up and started walking.

[Okay,] His tone softened and relaxed [Listen Mai, we gotta get that power-cell back, so me and the guys are going to track them down]

Mai frowned as she jump to another building "What about the Shellraiser, were you able to bring it back to the lair?"

[Yeah, though we COULD have gotten it back _faster_ if Donnie-boy here had checked if it wasn't on the parking-break] Raphael replied, but it sounded more aimed towards someone else – in the background she could hear Donatello giving annoyed {Sor-RY} like he did with her in the Shellraiser.

Mai suddenly remembered Donatello's comment about Raphael being her boyfriend and shook it off while Raphael continued [But point is, we gotta go now, so we won't be in the lair]

She hadn't planned on going to the lair, but with the information she'd been given about the loss of the power-cell, felt it might be better to stick around just in case they needed her.

"Why would I go back to the lair if you plan on going out again? Perhaps we could meet up somewhere?" She began to jog, jumping from building to building.

[Sorry, Mai, there ain't much time at the moment] Raphael apologized sincerely before she could hear him grin as he said [Besides, we aren't going on foot]

That was when she heard a motor roar to life so loudly it could've happened right next to her.

[Don't wanna turn you green again]he chuckled as someone called him in the background over the sound of the motor {Raph, we're going!} {I'm coming, so hold your shell, Le-o}

"Ha. Ha." Mai jumped down to the ground, landing smoothly "Very funny, I will see you back in the lair"

[Good, see you there]

-click-

Mai sighed deeply as she walked through the dark alley's back to the lair, not noticing the soft smile that played on her lips after she talked to Raphael.

The wound on her head had stopped bleeding by the time she entered the lair, but it still stung.

Walking down the steps of the living room, she found Master Splinter and April coming out of the dojo.

"You're training is going smoothly, April" Splinter complimented.

"Thanks, Master Splinter" April smiled before both of them saw Mai "Oh my gosh! Mai! What happened"

"Sorry for intruding" Mai bowed as April ran to her and master splinter followed close.

"As I said before, you are always welcome here" Splinter reassured.

Mai straightened up while April looked at her wound "What happened?" She asked worriedly as they went to sit on the couch.

Mai's lips twitched upward slightly in amusement "Hmmm…it must've bled a lot if you sound so worried" She shrugged "It's probably just a couple of scratches"

"_Mai_" April huffed annoyed "You should stop doing that"

The raven-haired girl frowned, not sure what the redhead meant "Doing what?"

"Acting like getting hurt is a normal thing, because, in-case-you-didn't-know, it _isn't_" April scowled the older girl sternly "Now sit here while I get the first aid kit"

Before Mai could object, the girl was already gone, leaving her with Ninjutsu Master and silence ensued.

Splinter watched her face, feeling something amiss within the young Samurai that was far different then what he sensed off her before.

"Mai," Master Splinter said to gain her attention "if you do not mind, I would like to have a word with you after April tends to your wounds"

Mai didn't answer him for a moment, before bowing slightly "Of course, Splinter-san" Mai said, feeling like she actually very much didn't want to 'have a word' with the older man.

April returned with the first aid kit and a bowl of water in hand, still scowling as she sat down next to the slightly wounded girl.

"Ugh, you really should be more careful, Mai," April said while cleaning the blood from Mai's face with a wet towel that she dipped into the bowl "Seriously, give me your jacket, it's completely ruined"

Mai smiled, not arguing back and handing over her jacket to April.

"Now, tell us Mai, what happened? Where are my sons?" Splinter asked while April continued to clean, finding the wound near the rim of her hairline. She sighed as she looked at the wound, it wasn't big and didn't need stiches, but Mai seemed to be taking a lot of hits lately.

Mai began telling what happened from the beginning of her night until now, leaving out the important bits – like her running after Fish-face and getting stopped by Raphael.

And the only thing she told about her second encounter with Fish-face was that it happened and they fought, but nothing more than that.

She also gave that as the reason for her wound.

"After that, Raphael-kun called me, and me he and the others were going after the Kraang to get the power-cell back" Mai finished.

April had already finished, putting a small Band-Aid on the wound, she had listened intently to Mai's story.

Splinter closed his eyes and was deep in thought, stroking his thin beard as he usually did when he was musing something over "I see" He said opening his eyes and putting his hands behind his back "Let us hope then, my sons will succeed in their mission"

"I'm sure they will, they have never failed so far" April said shrugging. She was confident her friends would pull through, they always had. Besides, if something did go wrong, Donatello would always figure out an solution to the problem.

"April, would you mind if Mai and I spoke alone for a bit?" Splinter asked turning around towards the dojo.

April blinked, surprised "No, of course not"

"Good," Splinter smiled slightly and continued walking "Mai? Would you follow me?"

"Hai, Splinter-san" Mai answered, and feeling April watching her, Mai shrugged at her as if it to say 'Don't look at me, I have no idea'.

And then they disappeared from view, leaving April behind with a worried and slightly curious look on her face.

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

Old comment from before I found the bar again: "I have no friggin' idea where the usual bar I put between scenes has flied off to. Is there like some update I missed or should I go check my eyes?

F me right? XD"

Mai oh Mai (sorry, stupid pun) what the shell does splinter want with you…and why do you keep bleeding so much with so many small wounds? I suddenly noticed that happening way more often then I initially thought, but she really is a bit careless.

Oh well, I guess it can be justified since she is going to die…(no one survives the shredder, unless you are really green or really hairy…scaly too).

Anyways, thanks for reading so far!

Lots of love,

Siaanna


	16. Chapter 16

[**IMPORTANT**: If you are _NOT_ caught up with the series thus far, this will spoil 'Episode 17 – TCRI' for you somewhat! Also, it is a good idea to rewatch that episode for this chapters sake!]

**WARNING: Major none grammar/spelling control done on this one!**

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

* * *

**One Purpose**

Chapter 16

Following Master Splinter into the dojo, Mai felt something closely resembling to a stone sinking and settling into the pit of her stomach.

"So," Mai began when the Ninjutsu Master sat down underneath the tree swirling upward and said nothing "Why do you wish to speak with me, Splinter-san?"

"Come, sit with me" Splinter invited before answering.

Sitting down across from the rat man, Mai felt a little nervous. She hadn't had a clue as to way the Ninjutsu Master wanted to speak with her and this sudden uncertainty made her skin crawl.

Master Splinter didn't waste much time as he spoke patiently "The reason why I wish to speak to you in private is that I sense that there is something you are hiding"

Mai could only avert her blind gaze to the ground, trying to avoid the feeling of his concerned stare on her skin. She stayed silent.

"Mai…"

"I don't wish to speak about this…" Mai said with her heart fluttering heavily in her chest. It was easy to see that the girl was distraught by the thought.

Master Splinter stroked his long thin beard and closed his eyes in thought before he spoke "Very well then, perhaps we could do something else then while we wait for my sons to return"

His smooth reaction, as he brushed the issue off to the side, took Mai surprise. She nodded and stood as he rose to his feet.

Splinter walked to the center of the "You wouldn't object to…a little sparring session?"

"Uh…of course not?" _What was he getting at?_ Mai had no idea, but she was unable to refuse.

"Good" Splinter said, a small smile in his voice "try to hit me"

Mai looked very confused at this point but took a stance across from him, not grabbing her blade since he was unarmed himself.

And they began.

Mai fell face first onto the floor with Splinter foot holding her down and his hands holding her arm locked behind her. She groaned in pain.

"Very good" Splinter said as he released her.

_Very good?_

She failed to hit him, Mai was from happy with that as she got up and before she could resume her stance, Splinter said "Now tell yourself you did good"

Mai had never looked so childlike as her face scrunch up like she had just sunk her teeth into an lemon.

But she complied, hoping Splinters questionable behavior had a point "I…did good"

"Now, let us continue, try to hit me"

Again and again and again Mai landed either face first or butt first on the floor and again and again and again, she had to compliment herself on doing so…on failing.

But she wasn't going to give up, her pride wouldn't let her, she would hit the old Ninjustsu Master even if it killed her.

When Splinter saw this determination in her expression, he put a stop to the match "Yame"

Mai didn't move an inch from where she stood, her body rigid with anger and frustration as she stood there, going to hit empty space "I haven't hit you yet, Splinter-san"

"And why is that so important?" Splinter questioned gingerly. There it was, what he had sensed was amiss within the girl – the loose cannon she presented.

Mai slowly went back standing up straight as she answered his question almost robotically "Because that was the goal of this sparring match, hitting you"

"And have you failed now that we will no longer continue?" Splinter asked.

Mai didn't say anything and suddenly the point he was trying to make came rushing over her like a flood of water.

"Mai" Splinter said gingerly and put his hand on her shoulder as she seemed to look down, her hands tightly clenched into fists "Failing does not mean you are weak and admitting your failures and confronting them, that is where true strength lies"

Mai was breathing heavily again, like she did on the staircase and she could feel tears pricking the rim of her eyes "I…don't belief I…can ever see it that way…" she bit out, hating her paper thin voice, her tears and all her weaknesses.

Splinter sighed "Let me tell you a story – when I was a young man…"

Mai had listened to his story, about how he was once friends with the shredder and that due to the love a woman, their friendship ended to hatred, and that hatred had caused the death of both his wife and daughter. The point of his story being that he too had failed as a father, husband and friend.

"I do not understand how you could live on like this," Mai gestured around them, her eyebrows knit together in confusion as her words hastily questioning the man's sanity "Why do you not avenge wife and daughter? Why not restore your family's honor by,-"

"You're wrong, Mai." Splinter interjected calmly "Yes, I lost my family, my home, my name and my humanity – but I have gained a new family, a new goal. Honor is not something you lose in a fight or at the loss of people you tried to protect, but something that we earn and gain for the things we do despite everything else"

His words struck a chord within her, some sort of recognition that she had long forgotten – but that didn't mean it changed her perspective, it didn't mean she would accept it as her 'new' truth.

And so Mai bowed deeply for the Ninjutsu Master and said "I understand, thank you, Splinter-sama"

Splinter watched her leave with a careful look on his face, because unlike with his sons, he didn't get the feeling his message was heard.

* * *

Raphael and his brothers returned to the liar with their patrol buggy and were planning on going over to leatherhead to see if the crocodilian might know where the Kraang would take the power cell, when something caught their attention.

"Welcome back" Mai greeted them with a wry smile.

"Hey, Mai" Raphael greeted her first as his brothers moved around them in a hurry, his brows knitting together as he saw the small Band-Aid on the side of her face.

His mind started to reel.

_What happened to her face?_

"No time to stick around, we need to find leatherhead" Leonardo said while dragging Raphael by the arm around to face the back of the garage/lab to head out.

Mai followed as they exited the lair "Leatherhead?"

"Yeah, the Kraang experimented on him and stuff, but he then stole the power cell and gave it to us to protect" Michelangelo informed her somewhat incoherently.

Mai turned her blind gaze towards Raphael with a questioning look on her face.

"The mutant alligator I told you about" Raphael reminded Mai.

_Why was she carrying her Katana all of a sudden?_

"Ah…" She nodded.

"Crocodile" Donatello corrected.

_Where was her jacket?_

"What does it matter?" Raphael asked irritably, annoyed by his younger sibling.

They turned into another sewer pipe and were getting close to the entrance of Leatherheads lair "It matters to me" Donatello replied haughtily.

Raphael groaned and rolled his eyes, which locked with Mai's.

_Why wasn't she wearing her sunglasses?_

She was walking with her hand stretched out, touching the walls slightly as they walked further away from the lair.

_Are those bruises?_

As his brothers continued walking around another corner, Raphael grabbed her hand to halt her "What happened to your face?"

Mai didn't immediately tug back her hand "What do you mean?"

Raphael let go of her hand and crossed his arms "I mean those nasty looking bruises that are starting to form on the side of your face," He glanced downwards for a second "Not to mention arms"

Mai contemplated wherever or not to tell the truth, then she sighed "I came across Fish-face on my way back, I might've underestimated him"

"You fought fish-face on your own?! Are you,-!" But his sentence was caught off by Mai's hands covering his mouth. Raphael would've removed them, if the sudden closeness with which Mai was standing against him wasn't so very distracting.

She seemed more worried about the others hearing them though, seeming to look over her shoulder as she listened if the others had heard the sound of Raphael's shouting voice or the fact that their comrades were missing.

"Please not now," Mai pleaded quietly as she turned her head back to Raphael "…uhm" She suddenly became aware of the warm lips pressed underneath her hands and quickly removed her hands from his face "Gomen…" Mai uttered and turned on heel to follow the others.

Raphael followed suit but only when the blush on his face had gone.

* * *

"Swim?"

They all turned to look at her, Mai could literally feel their eyes glued on her with questions.

"Is that going to be a problem?" Leonardo asked.

"Not really except for this," And she waved her hand over her eyes "I wouldn't really be able to know where I'm going"

"No problemo, I got you covered Onee" Michelangelo said confidently and turned and held his arms backwards so she could climb on.

"A piggyback ride? Are you stupid?" Raphael questioned "How are you supposed to swim like that?"

Michelangelo looked up at his brother "Well, I thought once we were in the water, I could just walk and,-"

Raphael slapped the back of Michelangelo's head – everybody sighed.

"It doesn't matter either way," Donatello said as Raphael forcibly pushed Michelangelo into the water and chuckled when the younger sibling squealed as he went "the trip will take too long anyways, no offense Mai, but you'll drown by the time we get there"

"It's fine, I'll wait here then" Mai said.

One after another the turtles went under, last of them, of course was Raphael. He touched her shoulder before jumping in "We'll be right back"

And then he was gone to.

How strange how reassuring those five little words were, how strange that his touch suddenly send gentle warm waves through her body.

She wasn't fully aware of this yet, for these feelings were crushed by other grim thoughts – like what was going on in the city, that the Shredder might send a legion of ninja's to assassinate her instead of facing her.

Well, maybe not a legion of ninja's, but still.

And mostly, what Splinter had tried to teach her. To her, it seemed impossible, finding something to fill the void of loss…well not loss exactly, more like replacing her whole being.

If these past months had taught her anything then it was that in this world, her view on how things should go and who she was, was warped and frowned upon.

Who she was…or rather who she became due to the years spend training under a man who treated her and brainwashed her to think nothing of herself and obey him…it was hard for her to acknowledge that.

It felt like her mind knew something, knew something and wanted her to know, but because it would go against everything she was, Mai couldn't grasp it.

Couldn't change, because that would be breaking herself and what she hoped she stood for.

Mai took a deep breath to calm herself and waited.

After an half hour, her friends returned.

"And?" Mai asked as she helped Michelangelo out of the water and Raphael next.

Leonardo got to his feet "Leatherhead gave us a clue" He informed her as they started to walk.

Donatello was staring at his T-phone, at the picture he had taken "I just hope I can figure it out"

"You will, Donatello-san" Mai said confidently.

"Yeah, and if not the Kraang will probably use the portal to destroy us all…" Everybody stopped to look at Michelangelo questioningly "Hehe…that sounded better in my head"

Everyone sighed.

Back in the lair everyone was in the lab standing around Donatello – well, except for Master Splinter and April, she'd gone home a little while ago.

"I know I've seen this symbol, it's so familiar…" Donatello said as everyone around Mai seemed to stare at multiple objects on the table.

"The Olympics!" Michelangelo enthusiastically tried to guess.

"No!" Donatello countered immediately.

Michelangelo didn't seem to take the angry tone seriously "I got it! The Olympics!"

"Stop guessing" Donatello growled at Michelangelo as the rest of the teens kept quiet "Obviously it's a Kraang symbol"

"But from where?" Leonardo asked.

"The Olympics!" Michelangelo cheered.

Raphael and Leonardo seemed to bend over to take a closer look, maybe their little brother may have a point that Donatello wasn't seeing.

"QUITE IT!" Donatello shrieked angrily and they backed up, Raphael holding Michelangelo as the younger sibling hugged him for safety. Mai could feel the frustration coming of the tallest turtle and back up with the rest of the brothers as Donatello continued "There's something here and I can figure it out if you'll all just go away and let me _think_!"

Mai left the lab while Splinter entered, she could faintly hear him say "Oh? The Olympics?" and smiled at hearing Donatello's reaction.

Raphael watched her smile before calling her over near their rooms "Mai?"

Reluctantly, the blind samurai walked over to him and Raphael took a deep breath to control his emotions.

"What is it now, Raphael-kun?" She questioned quietly.

"We need to talk,-" Raphael muttered back.

"We do that a lot lately" She interjected curtly, clearly on her guard "Unpleasantly so…"

"Well it wouldn't have to be unpleasant if you would just,-!"

"EVERYONE, FOLLOW ME! IGOT IT!" Donatello screamed while he kept running out of the lair.

Raphael and Mai looked at each other, or at least seemed to, the message was clear – this wasn't over yet.

* * *

"Donnie, hold on!" Leonardo yelled after his brother while they were running over April's house towards a destination unknown.

"Just hurry up!" Donatello shouted back as they continued to follow him. Mai wondered if this was what they would call a mad scientist.

But she didn't get to thinking much further as Raphael ran closely beside her and she was reminded of whatever conversation was going to follow after all this.

Raphael sped up after his brothers, not wanting to think about their last conversation and get angry. He needed a cool head right now and so he commented on his brother's sanity "I hate when he's like this, ugh!"

After a moment, they were there, but Mai stayed in the back as they landed on tall building.

"I've figured out where else I've seen this" Donatello said, and Mai was reminded of the mad scientist again by how he said it.

"Where?" Asked Leonardo.

They all seemed to look up and Mai just sighed as Raphael revealed the name of the company that belonged to the Kraang "TCRI? They behind the Kraang plot?"

"The invasion?" Leonardo questioned.

"The Olympics?" Michelangelo asked energetically – Mai grinned before the younger brother got slapped by Raphael "What was that?"

"A new Olympic event" Raphael commented.

Donatello ignored them and continued "They've been in plain sight the whole time, we just never realized it"

"I think it's pretty obvious what we need to do" Leonardo told them seriously "We're going and taking down that portal"

They turned to leave and Mai tried to follow the first three off the roof, but was stopped by Raphael pushing her back "And afterwards, we are going to talk"

Mai sighed as he jumped after his brothers, wondering what it would be this time and then followed after them.

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

Yaay! Finally, chapter sixteen is here! And hopefully I will be able to upload chapter seventeen after christmas and stuff - but who knows.

Anyway, I'm planning that there will be four more chapters after chapter seventeen, so in total that will be 21 chapters.

Or at least I think that will happen and thus finishing the story of Mai and the turtles ;)

Hope you enjoyed reading this story so far!

Lots of Love,

Siaanna


	17. Chapter 17

[**IMPORTANT**: If you are _NOT_ caught up with the series thus far, this will spoil 'Episode 17 – TCRI' for you somewhat! Also, it is a good idea to rewatch that episode for this chapters sake!]

**WARNING: Major none grammar/spelling control done on this one!**

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

* * *

**One Purpose**

Chapter 17

They called April after they returned to the lair, asking if she could help find out as much as possible about the company and building of TCRI.

Of course she didn't disappoint them.

They were all present in the kitchen, Mai standing against the doorframe simply listening to them discuss their plans for tonight.

She wondered what part she would have in this and whether or not she should – oh, she wanted to help her friends for sure…but what Splinter told her only a few hours ago still ringed throughout her mind.

Her eyebrows pulled together when an annoying sound came from the far corner of the kitchen where Donatello was thoughtfully looking at his home made device, making Mai turn her head in his direction.

"Can I touch that?" Michelangelo asked Donatello suddenly.

"Sure, if you wanna blow us and the whole lair to pieces…" Donatello replied sarcastically, who had been working on a bomb to blow up the portal later.

"Nah…I'm good" Michelangelo said nervously and shrunk a few inches in his shell.

Mai turned her attention back to the table, where Leonardo, Raphael and April were seated while Master Splinter stood beside them. She had noted that ever since their return to the lair Raphael had said nothing at all to her or his brothers – not even Splinter.

And then she remembered that awkward moment in the sewers where her hands had covered his warm mouth…and the subtle movement of his lips…

Mai shook her head and took a deep breath – she didn't know what that strange uncomfortable fluttering feeling was in her stomach, but she wasn't sure she didn't like it.

"I managed to download the blue prints for TCRI" April began after she rolled out the blue and white paper – drawing Mai mercifully back to the present "Now, the bottom two thirds are just a normal office building and from what I can tell normal humans work there"

"Imagine if they knew who they were working for" Leonardo suddenly interrupted, amusement clearly there in his voice as he continued in the way the Kraang usually spoke "The ones who are working for this place must punch the card that is known as the time card in the clock that is known as the clock of time"

Everyone just stared at him dubiously.

He laughed awkwardly and took a deep breath "Sorry, where were we?"

Getting bored of the conversation, Raphael eyed his two younger siblings with a certain interest. At the moment, the red cladded ninja felt frustrated and needed to somehow blow off some steam before they would head out in one of the most dangerous missions they ever had thus far. And of course the only way to do this was by tormenting Raphael's younger siblings.

If Mai hadn't paid as much attention to the main conversation she might have noticed him shift, slowly putting his weight on his foot as he stood up.

"Hmm…What about the upper floors?" Master Splinter asked the redheaded girl.

"Well…" April said "That's the thing, the top third is completely blank"

Slowly the red cladded turtle took a first few steps, sneaking up on them.

"Whatever they build up there," Leonardo added while pointing on the blue print with a small knife "They didn't want anyone to know about it" He proceeded with putting the knife back under his bandages on his left arm.

He crouched.

"Which means, that is exactly where you have to go" Splinter advised.

"BOOM!" Raphael sprung up behind the two and they both fell to a side from the scare. Raphael laughed loudly.

"Watch it fool!" Michelangelo warned angrily.

Even though the rest ignored the other three, Mai turned her gaze in their direction, wondering how someone so careless and reckless could actually lecture her on how to go about her life.

Raphael looked at her, his smile fading as their eyes met, though he knew she didn't truly saw his, he still felt the intensity hidden behind her blind stare.

"First," Leonardo suggested "we need to figure out how to get passed security in the lobby"

It was like they were holding a silent conversation as the rest continued on with what they were doing, but Mai – true to her nature – turned her blind gaze away.

"Tricky" April mused, looking at the blue print "It's not like we could just pack you in a box and send it special delivery…"

Something about what April said caused the boy to scratch his chin thoughtfully and straightened up "Hmm" Leonardo smiled as Mai walked out of the kitchen.

She couldn't bare much more of this…this…weird feeling. What was wrong with her? Why wasn't she out there right now, trying to listen to robotic footsteps that would lead her to her main goal?

She gritted her teeth angrily and growled as walked past the punching bag and she punched the dummy hard enough to send it flying off its chain.

Mai took a deep calming breath and walked over to the bean bag, plopping down tiredly. She felt so frustrated and confused at the moment.

If she could stare, she would be at the ceiling as she reflected upon herself. Yes, she wanted to live, desperately so, she wanted to stay alive and explore this weird world with her new friends…but every fiber in her rejected this, like a hot vomit that scorched her soul with acid at the thought alone.

Mai sighed deeply when everyone emerged from the kitchen into the living room.

"Okay, Mikey, Raph, you two go find leatherhead – we'll meet you guys up top" Leonardo ordered his two brothers.

"Awwwwwyesss! Score!" Michelangelo cheered at the prospect of seeing his gigantic friend once more "Best mission EVER!" and ran off.

Mai didn't move as she felt his eyes land on her briefly, before following the orange cladded turtle out the lair. In the distance, she could hear Michelangelo shriek after getting tackled by his brother – Raphael telling him off about running around on his own again.

The corners of her lips twitched upwards.

Mai got up and walked over towards the rest, flinging her hockey stick bag around her shoulder as she was sure she would be assigned something too.

Leonardo continued "April, Donnie, you too get a cart ready and a box big enough for all of us to fit into"

"No problem" Donatello said as April nodded. They left immediately.

"What will I be doing?" Mai asked.

Leonardo turned to her, regarding her with care "You and I will be scanning the area for any extra security and a possible escape route"

"Sounds good" Mai replied.

* * *

"Look, Jim, I've known you for a long time, but…what you're asking me to do here" The man sitting on the other side of the bureau sighed deeply "…is just not possible"

"There has to be some kind of solution to this, right?" Jim tried again, going about it another time. Murthy was an old friend of his after all "Isn't there any other way?"

Taking an even deeper breath, Murthy scratched his behind his bold head "Not…_legally_, Jim…"

The doctor contemplated this and sighed "I just thought, with your connections…"

"I know and I know that you wouldn't ask if it wasn't important…but _why_ are you asking anyway?" Murthy frowned "You have always been such a boy's scout Jim, I'm actually wondering if I'm actually talking to the real you"

Jim shot him a stern look "There is nothing wrong with being a scout"

Murthy laughed, or rather barked considering the roughness of his voice "Of course not!" He cut his laugh short when Jim started looking angry "I'll _try_, Jim, but don't expect anything"

"I know and I won't" Jim stood "Anyhow, I'll be going, thank you for doing this for me, Murthy, I owe you one"

Murthy also got up and held the door open for his old friend and with a pat on his back, he said with a wry smile "I remember owing you more then I care to remember, so don't worry about owing me anything"

Jim nodded, a polite smile in place as he stepped outside.

Murthy closed the door behind him and sighed – he didn't like to admit it to Jim, but this was going take a _long _while.

* * *

"Clear" Leonardo called from down the alley. Mai nodded from the rooftop to indicate she heard him.

This was the last possible place the Kraang might've had extra security – according to Donatello's calculations, as Leonardo had informed her during the mission – and so they could continue to the next step.

Leonardo climbed and jumped back onto the rooftop "We better go meet up with the others"

Mai nodded again and followed him as they jumped from roof to roof. Leonardo had already explained that her part in this would be that she would provide the needed back up if anything unexpected happened – not to mention helping April get out safely, since the redheaded girl was key for getting them in.

Somewhere along the explanation Mai wanted to protest and question why she wouldn't be going along inside with them, but she kept quiet.

The plan was solid and didn't require her immediate presence – that was fine. But she worried, having already saved_ him_ a couple of times, that _he_ might get hurt.

"You look worried" Leonardo commented, a kind smile on his face.

Mai almost tripped and fell off a roof.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you" Leonardo apologized when she caught herself and kept running.

"I'm fine" Mai smiled "I'm just a bit on edge"

They climbed onto a higher building and Leonardo stopped running, raising his brows at her "That's a surprise…"

Mai gave him a confused look "uh?"

"You admitting you're nervous" remarked the younger teen "You never do that"

"I didn't say I was nervous" Mai countered hastily "I just – with all the fighting, not to mention near death scenario's,-"

"ooh, I see" Leonardo cut in, smiling brightly "You're worried about us"

_Him._

"Of course I am" Mai huffed and then sighed, letting everything spill "It's not like whatever you guys have done so far, this is on a whole different level" She crossed her arms over her chest as her heart beat unevenly "It won't be like other times, you can't goof around or try and be a hero, this is some pretty serious stuff you're getting yourselves into and I can't protect any,-"

Leonardo felt his ninja sense tingling again and he slowly narrowed his eyes while Mai talked, his brows knitting together "What you are saying is that you think we can't handle it"

"Not entirely" Mai said gingerly, but then frowned "I think your plan is solid…except"

Leonardo crossed his arms over his chest, raising a brow, knowing where this was leading to "Except?"

Mai sighed "Of all of you combined, I have more experience with these type of missions, yet you exclude me from the most dangerous parts"

Leonardo debated whether or not he should tell her the truth…back in the lair Master Splinter had warned him not to have Mai on the inside mission because she would form a liability to the team, and from what he heard, Master Splinter had given him enough to have every right to belief that to be true.

Of course Master Splinter hadn't told him everything that he knew, but Leonardo would tread carefully from now on when Mai was involved.

Was it fair to tell her that though? Or would a half-truth be better? The teenager debated this, before answering "I won't deny that you might the most skilled in the team Mai, but the fact of the matter is, this is a high stealth mission where we will be going full ninja-mode" Leonardo turned around, feeling icky for what he said "It's a 'get in and get out without anyone seeing us' sort of mission, and we both know you can't do that"

After a moment, Mai nodded and quietly answered him back "I understand"

And they proceeded to meet up with the others.

* * *

After escorting April safely back – and promising to the redhead she would not get in trouble, again – Mai waited at the randevu point.

Leaning her head against the wall, Mai sighed deeply. She was tired, very tired. It felt like she had been fighting nonstop, like everyday something or someone fought against her.

Not only physically or verbally, but also mentally and emotionally.

Perhaps it was better that she did not continue with the turtles inside TCRI and have a moment to catch her breath.

She was human after all, maybe that was also the reason why they had so much stamina, not being human and all.

The thoughts that followed after that were quite…disturbing. She hadn't given any thought to what they _were_, because of her blindness, she never cared.

He wasn't hu,-

Before she could continue the thought, an explosion could be heard from the large building and Mai jumped up.

Within seconds, Leonardo had shot a grappling hook her way and one by one they got to the roof where she was.

To her relief, they were all unhurt and safe – excluding leatherhead she only met briefly and exchanged no words with.

But they had failed.

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Yellow my lovely's!

I'm SO sorry for uploading this chapter so late, but between exams and Christmas shopping, chapter seventeen got delayed and therefor you were stuck with the loading thing (because normally I'd be posting the after or the day after that).

Anyway, it won't happen again!

So this is the last chapter featuring anything from episode 17 and we will continue to chapter 18 where some time might've been passed (yay or nay).

Of course some chapters will still be mixed with a couple episodes, but you'll find out which when I upload the next few chapter later this vacation.

Till then, Merry Xmas or Happy Holidays (which ever you prefer!)!

Lots of love,

Siaanna


	18. Chapter 18

[**IMPORTANT**: If you are _NOT_ caught up with the series thus far, this will spoil 'Episode 18 - Cockroach Terminator' for you somewhat! Also, it is a good idea to rewatch that episode for this chapters sake!

**WARNING: Major none grammar/spelling control done on this one!**

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

* * *

**One Purpose**

Chapter 18

Even though they failed destroying the portal, they found out something else entirely about the Kraang's main goal thanks to Michelangelo.

After decrypting the code, Donatello brought the whole gang together to discover that what the Kraang needed to start the invasion was April.

And thus, as the only one able to appear in brought daylight, Mai was asked to guard April.

Of course the redheaded girl protested, arguing that she had managed thus far. But the turtles and Splinter reminded her of the fact that it might've been mere luck so far, not to mention the many occasions the Kraang had tried to abduct the girl many times before.

Mai agreed with them, not knowing at that moment they would turn to her to become April's personal bodyguard.

"You don't have to do this," April had said when Mai escorted her all the way to the redheaded girl's aunts house "I can't, no we all can't expect you to,-"

"It is fine" Mai had said for the hundredth time.

The big stone that sat at the pit of her stomach seemed to turn whenever Mai thought about. She didn't want to be responsible for April's safety. But she didn't want April to get hurt either.

So, as agreed, Mai escorted April as close to her high school as April would allow – since the redheaded girl did not want to explain who or why Mai was with her constantly.

Afterward Mai would 'casually' meet up with April and 'hang-out' with her and her annoying friend Irma.

"So, your from Japan I take it." Irma asked.

"Yes." Mai responded. They were seated in the living-room at Aprils house, doing their homework.

Mai didn't do chit-chat or give more information then needed, which made her seem odd to Irma has to how April befriended this particular stick in the mud.

"And where exactly did you two meet?" Irma pestered.

"At Murakami's" April answered immediately.

"Is that so?" Irma squinted her eyes at Mai.

"Yes." Mai answered again and then turned to the door. "April-san, I'll be outside if you…for a while."

"Okay, see you later?" April asked concerned.

"Yeah." Mai said and closed the door behind her gently.

"Gee, April, when I said I wanted to see one of your friends I imagined them...well, not to be Tokyo Terminator."

April gave Irma an irritated look. "Give her a break Irma, she's just...just very shy."

"If you say so. But I'm telling you, something is wrong with that girl."

* * *

Raphael felt his T-phone vibrating. He and his brothers were all gathered next to the screen by Donnie's station in the Shell-racer, watching how that disgusting cockroach did some spying for them.

Very quietly, he took out his phone and read the message, not noticing his elder brother giving him a glance.

[April is safe, she and her friend Irma are doing their homework.]

So that was all she had to say to him. He thought bitterly.

They hadn't spoken to each other for almost an entire week, mostly because Mai would either go home or train somewhere else the moment they took over guarding duty for April.

It wasn't that odd that Mai would send a text like this, but she mostly send those to either Donatello or Leonardo, not him.

Either way, he didn't feel like sending a reply. What would he send anyway? {Good job, here's your friggin cookie}?

He pocketed his phone and shook his head. He needed to concentrate on the mission.

* * *

Should she call him? Shouldn't she? They still needed to talk it out about what happened earlier that week. Mai was pacing on top of the building April lived in, her shoulders tense. Mai removed her new sunglasses and pocketed them, rubbing the bridge of her nose and eyelids. The new pair really did fit well.

Mai sighed and figured she shouldn't. They were probably on a mission, the reason why she only texted them a couple an updates anyway.

But now that she send one to him...it felt like a mistake, she should've stuck with only texting Donatello or Leonardo

Mai banged her head against a brick wall and sighed.

She needed to calm down, ever since the last time they spoke she had been twisting herself into a big ball of anxiety.

Ugh, she was afraid of so many things all of a sudden…of facing the shredder, of losing her life, of losing her friends...of rejection.

Mai let out a frustrated groan and banged her head for second time against the wall, not achieving much accept a slight bruise.

"Mai?"

The raven haired girl hurled around to see April entering the roof through the roof door.

"Is something wrong?" Mai asked immediately turning around and looking ready for anything.

"No, I'm fine. Irma just left and I thought you might be hungry, so I brought you some dinner." April smiled and walked over to her friend with a white plastic bag in hand.

"Domo," Mai said quietly and taking the food from April.

"I ordered this from Murakami's," April began kind of awkwardly and sat down, leaning her back against the wall. "since I don't really know what you would like to eat. You know, other then something Japanese."

Mai smiled at that and sat down next to the redhead, slowly opening the back. The smell of delicious food making her stomach rumble quietly.

"That is very considerate of you, April-san." Mai said and split the two chopsticks in half and saying thanks before eating.

"Well, there isn't much else I can do in return for your help." April shrugged. "Besides, I never really see you take any breaks while_ guarding_ me."

Mai nodded and continued to eat.

The two of them sat in silence for a moment, the city around them making its usual noise – a cat in an alley way hissing to another cat, a car screeching to a halt and people getting out to scream at each other some more, loud music everywhere. Mai even might've heard an explosion in the distance.

The city was at peace.

"Oh," April said suddenly, gaining Mai's attention as the redhead continued. "Sorry about Irma, she...kind of critical of people."

"She would make a good detective." Mai agreed.

"Well, I'm not so sure about that." April laughed and then looked up at the sky, only seeing a couple of stars. "But since she started asking you those questions, I realized that I myself don't know that much about you."

Mai finished her meal and put the box back into the plastic bag next to her, listening very carefully to what April was saying.

"You wish to know more about me?" The raven haired questioned.

"Well, yeah." April said looking at Mai sideways. "I mean, we are friends right?"

Mai considered that for a moment and nodded, but her shoulders tensed up in apprehension to what kind of questions April, who was far more intelligent then Raphael, would ask her.

"So, what is it you wish to know, April-san?"

"Let's see..." April mused, but eyes lit up quick anticipation. "Oh, I know! Let's start with something basic, like, where were you born?"

"I was born in a mountain village, Sotoba." Mai answered directly.

"What was it like there?" April asked feeling pumped that Mai was answering her quiestion.

"I don't really remember much..." Mai said, trying to think back. "...I guess it was really quiet there." Feeling April absorbing every word, Mai felt like she should add something extra to it. "I remember that the winters being very nice there."

"So you prefer winter of summer then?" April fired.

Mai thought again. "Yes, I think I do."

"Why?"

Mai smiled at April and flicked her forehead.

"Ow!" April said and rubbed her forehead – not that it hurt that much.

"You're worse then your friend." Mai teased.

"Well, sorry." April huffed annoyed.

"Not in the same way though," Mai laughed. "You don't look for the worst in people. Your more like a scientist or a reporter then a detective."

"Uh...thanks?"

"The snow." Mai said, her expression suddenly going from amused to concentrating. "I really loved the snow, when it fell to the ground and how nice it looked when everything was covered in white."

April stared at her friend for a moment. "I know this is a stupid standard question...but,"

"Hmn?" Mai turned her head sideways.

"Do you miss seeing the snow?"

"Not really..." Mai answered calmly, as to reassure April. "I never really had the time to think about the snow."

"But now you do," April said before she could help herself. "I'm so sorry, Mai. I didn't mean to,-"

Mai laughed, very heartily.

"It's okay, April-san, really." Mai reassured, another giggle escaping her smiling lips. "It's just that, you're right. I suddenly have the time to think about a lot of things."

April smiled awkwardly. "Okay then, but I do think that I'm done asking questions at the moment."

Mai nodded in agreement and got up along with April, who had grabbed the plastic bag.

"Well, I'm off to bed, tomorrow there's an important biology class coming up. If I ace it I can follow the advanced biology class." April announced with some excitement.

"So a scientist it is." Mai smiled.

April rolled her eyes at the raven-haired girl and walked over to the roof door and pulling it open "Have a nice night, Mai. Hopefully one of the guys will be here soon so you can...do whatever it is you do when your not forced to guard me."

"Questions for another time." Mai suggested and April laughed, closing the roof door behind her.

Mai smiled and sat back down, not really believing how light and fun this conversation had been compared to all the conversations she had with Raphael, though she had spend more time with him then with April.

Mai leaned her head back and listened as sirens of police cars raced through the streets. This city was so like him, angry, dangerous and loud.

* * *

Today was definitely a day all about facing your fears. And so, after he reigned victorious over cockroach terminator, sabotaged the Kraang's plan to crack New York open like an egg with his brothers and pummeled Mikey for slipping a cockroach into his shell, he went to face his greatest challenge yet – Mai.

"I thought it was my turn to stand guard for April?" Donnie question with a frown on his face.

"You've stood guard for two days in a row, Don." Raph said with a deadpan. "Could you be anymore creepier?"

Donatello's face lit up bright red. "FINE" He managed to screech. "You go, I have better things to do anyway!" And he shut the door of the lab with a load bang.

Raphael grinned and headed out to April's house, but the moment he hit the roof's his expression became very serious.

They were going to have there talk about why she was covered in bruises back then and probably some other stuff too.  
Only this time, they weren't going to fight or yell. They would just talk.

He jumped over a larger alley and landed quietly on April's roof, the lights were turned off inside, so Raphael assumed April was asleep.

Mai stood the moment his feet landed, her guarded face quickly softening the moment she recognized it was Raphael.

"I thought your Donatello-san was on guard duty..." Mai commented and added. "Again."

"Well, yeah, but he needs to sleep sometime too." Raphael replied not immediately getting into the itty-gritty. "So how've you been?"

"I'm..." Mai had been ready the go the moment she knew she was being relieved from her guard duty. But now that it was Raphael, she hesitated. She took a deep breath. "I've been meaning to continue our conversation...from last time."

"Yeah, me too." Raphael agreed, folding his arms over each other. "So what exactly happened Mai?"

Mai's lip formed a tight line, but she knew that she would have to tell him and face the music. He knew that she would do anything to reach her goal, no matter.

Mai sighed and crossed her own arms over her chest and began. "After I escorted that _doofus,_" She needed to think of the name. "the '_pulverizer_', to his apartment, I came across – what did Michelangelo-san call him again? Fish-face?"

Raphael already kind of knew this part and nodded, sure she would be able to send his movement. "So you fought him?"

Frowning at how calm he was taking the news, Mai nodded. "Yes."

"Did he tell you were Shredder's hide out is?" Raphael asked. That was the most important thing right now. He had a lot of trouble keeping his temper under control, mainly because underneath it was something much scarier bubbling to the surface.

Mai hesitated, but decided to deal out the harsh truth anyway, not only because he needed to know that he should distance himself from her. But also because he was being unbelievably reasonable about the whole thing and some twisted part of her wanted to know where the line, she used to cross, went to.

"If he had, I wouldn't have come back to the lair that night." Mai said and waited for his response.

Raphael's jaw automatically clenched and so did his fists. Every muscle in his body was ready to snap, to scream and to get mad, but he managed it.

He took a very long and deep breath. "Okay, dually noted." And carved into his brain.

"You're not going to yell at me that I'm insane?" Mai questioned surprised. She had been anxious for so long about how he would react, this was definitely not what she had expected. "Or that I should stop what I'm doing, that there is another way."

"No." Raphael chewed out. Was she _trying_ to get him angry? "We already talked about that and you obviously know what I already said about that." He smiled bitterly and added. "Besides, I don't want to wake the whole neighborhood."

He was cracking jokes? Was he ill?

"Then why make such a fuss out of talking to me about it?" Mai questioned, still more shocked then anything else.

Raphael sighed and looked away. "Because I want you to be able to talk to me without you being afraid I'll get angry."

He had been thinking about this a lot, about how he feared that she would just run off and disappear into the night to get killed by the Shredder. If she kept telling him whatever she was up to, sure enough he would be able to stop her, somehow.

Besides, the reason he was able to control himself was this prep time. He already knew she had fought fish-face and that there was a chance she knew where shredder was.

Besides, today was a day of facing your fears.

Mai had to take a moment to actually take in what he just said to her, but her brain was malfunctioning for a bit. She would be able to talk about it with him, she would be able to stay friends with him.

Was this relief she was feeling? That her friend had accepted her? That he accepted her mission?

Mai didn't really know how to react, she felt so...grateful.

"Domo...Domo Arigato..." She whispered.

Raphael looked back at her and saw tears falling down her smiling face. He immediately went over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Mai, what's wrong?"

Mai shook her head and kept smiling, wiping a few tears away before she hugged him. "Thank you for understanding." She muttered into his plastron.

Raphael's arms were still in front of him, his hands holding air. His eyes turned as big as face turned bright red and he wasn't breathing.

"N-no," He swallowed and took a deep breath, forcing his arms to go around her. "No problem." He managed to croak.

After a moment more of this, Mai calmed down her feelings and was the first to end their embrace while Raphael was just getting used to it.

"Uhm...I'm sorry, I shouldn't have..." The girl stammered.

"Uh, yeah, no...I...it's okay." Raphael replied just as awkward.

They stood there in silence for a moment more, both 'looking' the other way with slight blushes on their faces until Mai broke the silence once more.

"I...I should get going, it's been a long day and Jim-san is probably worried about me."

"Yeah. You should." Raphael agreed roughly.

Mai bowed to him as a to say goodbye and began jumping from building to building, leaving a red faced Raphael behind who made a fist-pump when she was completely out of sight and danced a little victory dance with it.

* * *

**Author Comments:**

Hello everyone,

It's been quite a while since I last uploaded a new chapter and I'm really sorry for the long wait! The reason why it took so long was because I wasn't really feeling season 3…

I know, I know, how could I, but it...it just didn't speak to me as much as season 1 and 2 did. But now that I saw the first episode of season 4, I'm totally feeling the turtle mojo again!

So I hope you guys are prepared, because we only have about 3 chapters left for the final conclusion of One purpose story!

Anyway, let me know what you guys think and I will read you until the next chapter!

Lots of Love,

Siaanna


	19. Chapter 19

**WARNING: Major none grammar/spelling control done on this one!**

Disclaimer: I do NOT own TMNT (teenage mutant ninja turtles)!

**One Purpose**

* * *

Chapter 19

Raphael looked at his T-phone and laughed. He and his brothers were about to leave the lair because Donnie had gotten another lead on the Kraang.

The red cladded turtle had gotten another text from Mai, which happened a lot as of late, and she was complaining about having to watch April a little longer since they were going to follow up another Kraang lead.

[April-san is about to torture me with trying on different types of clothing, Jim-san is robbing off on her. You guys better hurry up.]

The fact that he allowed her to belief that he would let her fulfill her purpose, brought laughter back into their relationship, along with trust and understanding.

But of course he wasn't actually letting her do it. So help him, he would take out the shredder himself if he had to.

"Watcha laughing about Raph?" Mikey asked trying to read the text message over Raphael's shoulder while they ran out of the lair.

"None of your business, Mikey." Raphael barked and pocketed the phone while slapping the back of Michelangelo's head.

"Ow!" the orange cladded turtle squeaked.

"Stop it Raph." Leonardo ordered over his shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah" Raphael said with a deadpan and pushed Michelangelo to the side when his little brother stuck his tongue out to him.

* * *

Mai was sitting in April's room, since the redhead had insisted that she didn't stay out on the roof every night.

"So what are the guys up to?" April asked. The teen was sitting at her desk making her homework while Mai had settled herself at the windowsill leading up to the fire-escape.

Mai had been holding her t-phone in her hand, reading a reply from Raphael and turned her head to April to show that she paid attention.

"At the moment they are on a stake out at some laboratory." Mai informed the redhead.

"Okay, why?" April asked, popping a single brow up.

Mai let her fingers trace the screen of her phone to reread the message. "Apparently because the Kraang are planning to steal something from there."

"Then shouldn't you be there with them?" April questioned. "If there's anybody good at kicking Kraang brains it's you."

"Thank you." Mai smiled. "And even if that might be true, they will be fine without me. Besides, I'm sure that if they couldn't handle the situation, they would call me." Mai waved her T-phone back and worth to emphasis the fact that they _would_ call her.

"I guess your right. I just have trouble getting used to having someone hovering over me all the time." April said with an apologetic smile. "I mean, I feel bad that you have to go through my boring daily life and not be able to do whatever you normally would."

Mai laughed. "Your life isn't _that_ boring April-san."

"Okay…I can't argue that." April laughed with her. "Ever since I was abducted by the Kraang the first time and the turtles saved me, my life has been anything _but_ boring."

April looked back to her advanced biology homework and concentrated on the task at hand. For a little wile the two of them were quiet.

Mai found herself wondering what it would've been like to attend high school, but what she heard from April it was a war-zone in and of itself.

There was a knock on the window next to Mai and for a second April's eyes widened in fear. But seeing Mai calmly open the window, had the other teenager relax.

"_Gooood_-evening ladies." Donatello greeted them politely.

"Hey Donnie." April greeted with a wide smile, making the lanky turtle grin even wider.

"_Konbanwa_, Donatello-san." Mai greeted back. "I assume your stake out was successful?"

"Well, actually...not really." Donatello said with a sigh. "We almost busted the Kraang when Fish-face and Dog-pound showed up with some foot soldiers."

Mai tensed a little at that news, but reminded herself they hadn't known either that their mutual enemies would show up. So he wasn't keeping anything from her.

"I wish I had been there to help out." Mai said and then bowed to April. "I will see you at dawn, April-san. Have a nice night." She said before climbing out the window.

"You too." April smiled and waved goodbye.

Donatello closed the window behind Mai and followed her up onto the roof. "Mai, wait a second." He called after her.

Mai stopped and turned around. "What is it, Donatello-san?"

"I have a new update for your T-phone I would like to instal before you go." Donatello said and fetched a usb from his shoulder bag.

"Ah, of course." She said and handed her phone over to him. "What kind of update?"

"Oh it's just going to replace some dated data." Donatello said and then sighed. "Mikey has been nagging me about getting more storage for his music and games."

"It plays music?" Mai questioned.

"And games, though I still have to figure out how to make that possible for you since most games are sight-based." Donnie added, but he also quickly saw why she sounded so confused. "Wait, you haven't downloaded anything yet."

"I didn't know it was possible." Mai said, getting kind of excited by the prospect. Music.

"Okay, wait until the update is finished and I'll help explain how it works." Donatello said, eyes fixed on the loading screen.

* * *

[I heard what happened yesterday, are you okay?]

Raphael had to read it about 3 times before his brain had actually started up. He was lying on his bed and it was nine in the morning and he had planned to sleep all the way to one in the afternoon if his sensei let him.

But hearing his phone buzz next to his ear had woken the teenager enough to grab the thing from the side and try and read the message with eyes half split open.

Someone had told her. Did she blame him for not telling her immediately, had she been waiting for him to send her a text screaming {I FOUND FISH-FACE AND DOG-POUND, COME OVER HERE TO BEAT THEM UP AND ASK WHERE THE SHREDDER LIVES!}?

No. If she did think he betrayed her again, she would've send nothing to him and ignored him again.

So he replied calmly.

[Yeah, we're all right, they got in the way of us stopping the Kraang. I really wanted to kick Fish-face's tail for what he did to you, tho.]

His eyes fluttered shut again, while he thought back to that awkward hug on top of April's roof and was glad he had kept himself in check.

His phone buzzed again only a moment later and Raphael decided to give up on sleeping in.

[Let me know if you get wind of them again, I'd like to finish the fight I had with fish-face.]

Crap. Of course he wouldn't let her know, but she didn't need to know that, so he wrecked his brain for a minute how to respond correctly and came up with something soon enough.

[If I have the time to send or call you in the middle of a battle next time, sure, why not.]

Raphael laid his phone back on his mattress and rolled out of bed to do some push-ups. She couldn't argue against that and he fiercely hoped she wouldn't. A moment later his phone buzzed again.

[Thank you.]

The rest of the day was routine for Raphael, eat, train and hang out until they had to go on patrol again. He texted Mai before they left the lair.

* * *

[We're going for a routine patrol, it's my time to stand guard, see ya in a little bit.]

"Tonight Raphael-kun will come and relieve me." Mai announced from her usual spot at the windowsill to April who was lying on her bed reading some blogs on her laptop.

"Cool." April replied and then sat up for a bit. "Hey Mai, I've been meaning to ask you, how is Jim doing?"

Mai frowned. "I think he is doing well...though..."

"Though?" April's brows pulled together, she simply meant to have a little bit of chitchat between them since they hadn't spoken for more then over an hour.

"I haven't seen him as much around the house..." Mai said, feeling a bit guilty about the fact. "...and when he comes home he often tends to just to go to bed." Then she shrugged "I think he's overworking himself."

"Not to mention I'm keeping you away from him..." April added sourly, turning her attention back to her computer screen.

Mai sighed at April's tone. "It is fine, you are my friend, I do not mind doing this."

Suddenly April giggled.

"What?" Mai questioned, eye brows raised.

"That is probably the first time I heard you say you were my friend." April grinned.

Mai's flushed red, embarrassed, but also feeling kind of light. She had a friend. The truth settled comfortably in her, like a second skin.

"I'm glad...I met you that day in the alley, April-san." Mai admitted "How different things would've been if I hadn't."

"Yeah." April replied, remembering that day as well. She had almost been eaten by that giant spiked mutant if it hadn't been for Mai's suddenly heroic arrival. "I would've been mutant chow without you."

"Yes." Mai agreed, amusement making her smile her small smile. "Thankfully you have grown stronger now."

That made the redheaded girl glum again. "Not strong enough to handle myself without a babysitter. No offense."

"None taken." Mai replied, amusement gone.

* * *

Author's Notes:

OMFG this took forever and in all honesty it isn't really finished yet and not as long as my normal chapters, so see this as an inbetween chapter if you will :p

Anyway, i don't know when I will post the rest, but hang tight the ending is coming in another two or three chapters and then it will be all over folks :'O


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